Legilimens!
by nissassa
Summary: One fine evening our young hero has a bout of accidental legilimency, The result: We get a mind-mage Harry.Is the wizarding world ready for him? HarryXN.Tonks. Tonks is 3 years older than Harry. !Horcrux enhanced Harry
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer-: If you recognize it, I don't own it. Harry Potter does not belong to me. Neither does any other fictional character.

EDITED ON : 9.6.11

**Legilimens**

Harry Potter was really happy today; after all he had scored the highest marks in his exams. Today he will show his aunt that he was not a freak, he was smart and then his aunt will treat him better. He had high hopes; he was smart a lot smarter than his family considered him to be. He had studied hard for the exams when he once heard his aunt muttering about no good freaks and his uncle saying that he would fail his school because he was a freak, much unlike his cousin who hated anything that had black markings vaguely resembling letters. Now that he had secured the first position his aunt would not call him a freak and hopefully he would be treated better.

Little did he know that it was not be ….

He unlike his cousin walked quietly in the house and showed his aunt his report card, but his aunt treated him indifferently. This was so wrong! Where were the words of encouragement that he had heard parents giving their children? All he had dreamt of were the words of his aunt finally giving him what every child craved, acceptance. His aunt did not even look at his grades before sending him his way.

Still he thought at least things could not go any worse, or could they?

Vernon Dursley was NOT having a good day, apart from receiving reports of high blood pressure at such young age he was unable to negotiate a deal with a firm to make drills for them. Not to mention his boss was not thrilled and neither were his colleagues; they wont be getting a bonus because the deal was not signed. No one ever said well tried to Vernon, no one considered that another company had offered a much better deal and that company had cut a lot of profit to secure the deal, the boss had not approved cutting profit for the deal and it was bound to fail. Everyone knew that, but someone had to be the scapegoat.

Still he got home; all the while he was tempted to go for a drink. He would not spoil this day for his family; he would even be ignorant of the freak because his really smart son was bringing his first report card home, so what if he was unable to secure a deal it was just a deal right? Some small amount of money never mattered to him when it was about his son.

His son would show him his marks and then it would one step for a bright future, unlike the freak that was good for nothing. Petunia still claimed that the freak would go to some crackpot school and become even more abnormal, but he was not going to pay for it, then perhaps those people would leave them alone.

He saw two reports open on the table and went for them; he was delighted the reports showed very good grades... he was so proud of his son. As he turned a page to see and he suddenly saw red! The freaks name was written on the report then where was his sons report book? Lying next to it was a report; pathetic was not the word he would use to describe it.

Somehow the freak had changed the names, his son was brilliant and the freak was just... Well, a freak that would never amount to anything.

No, he would not stand by and let the freaks freakishness destroy his son's future; calming himself he called the freak

"BOY", "come here BOY"

Harry still hoped if his uncle would acknowledge him, came running to meet his uncle a wide smile on his innocent face.

"Yes uncle Vernon"

"Boy did you score this"

"Yes uncle Vernon, I scored the best" replied Harry with childlike exuberance.

His uncle's face turned purple with spit frothing from his mouth he ordered Harry to get in the cupboard. Harry felt miserable, every time his uncle said something like this things did not go good...

Still he complied, what other option did he have?

His cupboard, a dark place he hated the most, yet loved it. .while it gave him a feeling of being his where the Dursley's rarely stepped in, it also was a place where he had to stay sometimes for weeks without regular meals.

But today his uncle came barging in all the while removing his belt

"Tell me freak why did you do it?"

"Why did I do what uncle?"

"Why did you use your freakishness and change your marks with Dudley"

"I did not do anything uncle, the marks were mine"

"Don't lie to me freak, I know your sort, bloody freaks destroying lives of good people."

"Will you do it again?"

"But what did I do?"

SLAP

"Don't give me a cheek boy, I know you used your unnaturalness on my son, we feed you we give you a place to live and you pay us back like this?"

"Today I will teach you a lesson. Your aunt is not at home, by the time she comes I will rid you of your freakishness"

And he started hitting Harry with a belt, the innocent child's pleas fell to deaf ears as he did not stop, today he will show the freak. He had contemplated many times that a good beating or two would rid the boy of his abnormality.

Meanwhile Harry while being beaten felt a myriad of emotions from fear of his uncle, to anger at his helplessness, and rage at its unfairness of everything.

He did not even know why he was being beaten by his uncle, why was he treated like this in the first place? Defiance rose in his heart he wished to retaliate, he wished he could know why he was beaten and he glared at his uncle, his uncle seeing this started hitting harder but suddenly Harry's eyes glowed his wish was suddenly fulfilled, he suddenly saw a conversation between his aunt and uncle as how she described a world of freaks in which her sister lived, their unnaturalness and how they waved their wands for just about anything.

The more he saw the flashes Harry wanted to know more, his curiosity of his parents sparked his interest.

And in a burst of magic Harry had accidentally sent many probes in his uncle's mind without proper control …And his uncle's entire life was played in front of him …

Without a warning both Vernon and Harry collapsed. Both were experiencing tremendous amount of pain one due to onslaught of memories and one for having his mind probed ruthlessly.

It was to that scene that Petunia returned to with Harry having belt marks on him while her husband laid collapsed with his face scrunched in pain.

She immediately surmised that the freaks magic (not that she would admit to others having thought of the word) reacted, oh how many times she had stopped Vernon from going too far in the past, one slip and now he was witnessing the result. She dragged Vernon out of the cupboard paying no mind to the equally if not more seriously injured child laying there.

She called the ambulance and Vernon was rushed away and diagnosed of Brain Hemorrhage and due to his reports of high blood pressure doctors said it was not that unexpected.

He might make full recovery, Petunia's fear were stilled , she now knew it was not due to freak, the reports said so, just the stress had taken a toll on her poor Vernon.

Meanwhile, with Harry-

Harry lay in his cupboard while His brain was recovering from such an unexpected onslaught while recovering it had to arrange all those memories in the child's mind but a problem arose , Harry had not developed and a normal brain would never take this much information and live, well if this much information was forced in such a small time.

But magic came to rescue again.. Harry's magic was exceptionally strong being born strong and add that to the constant leaching done by the soul fragment it was forced to grow.

Sometimes a combination of bad luck turns to be good for today would be the end of the world as everyone knew it; Or at least the beginning of the end… Change comes in many forms; could start with just a flapping of butterfly's wings but what it brings might change the world as we see it. Such a change might be sometimes sudden but more often it comes slowly, unnoticed and unseen by most until the world changes completely before the people fully realize it.

12 Hours went by and Harry's mind arranged and sorted the memories all the while it was forced to grow for no child could process so much , either it was to be damaged beyond repair or forced to grow .

The blocks on Harry's Magic fell away, as the magic was needed but still it was not sufficient, his magical core searched and found another core nearby in the same body, the one that had placed hooks on the child's soul and was slowly leeching magic.

But now that the foreign presence was known it also carried magical core, albeit a smaller one compared to the Childs but Harry needed as much as he could get.

So on instinct it grabbed on the soul that was elusive and fighting but it was small and lost the battle, previously it had tried possession but the child had instinctively blocked it now the child had attacked it and it was losing. Tom riddles soul contained its own consciousness. It had done all it could from trying to take possession to trying to escape the child's body but all attempts were futile. During those years it had thought that his counterpart would someday return and surely it would kill the brat, but what would become of him, he was essentially another entity now, purely severed of the man whose part it once was. It knew that his counterpart was not dead; he would since he was one with Tom when the rest of his brother horcruxes were created.

It had resigned its fate to being destroyed along with the brat, but could he have a chance …

They say if you cannot defeat then, join them and Tom was a good strategist, well until bouts of insanity hit him that is.

In all cases the result was his destruction as till he lived his counterpart will live to return to kill the brat and if the brat died he would die …

But now it had a chance. His counterpart had not yet returned. If he would have he would have come for the child that much he knew. And he knew that the child would not have a chance to kill his counterpart, not even a fighting chance until he spent his time in a tent and went after some mystical items to give him enormous power. He was painfully brought back from his musing when he felt a tug by the desperate subconscious of the child that wanted more free magic. Time was of essence, He was afraid of crossing over as a mutilated soul. It was not the plan, the plan was to mutilate the soul and live eternally. He did not even consider the possibility that he would depart from the plane of living. He did not wish to meet his victims in afterlife, he feared them.

There was not much time left he would be stripped of his magic and banished, not that the child would survive the fight. or he could willingly become a part of the child... hmm the idea became appealing as every moment passed, for once thought he would no longer remain, so wont the child remain, they would become one a whole new being .

He stopped resistance and suddenly pushed his desire to merge. Rather than giving away the magic he desired to merge his whole essence. The child's magic did not have much choice if the soul was accepted and became a part of him that the child's magic will be strengthened beyond imagination, well for a six year old he would be very powerful. As a soul was something that generated magic. One could call soul a very concentrated form of magic that generated magic in somewhat dilute form to fill a persons magical core.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. And they came to mutual agreement. The whole soul and the other mutilated piece of other soul merged as one and immediately provided the required magic to heal and grow the brain to sort the memories out. The reverse process of a horcrux creation was performed by Harry Potter and Tom Marvolo Riddle. The slowly losing consciousness of Tom Marvolo Riddle mused- "For the second time in his life Harry Potter survived against all odds performing feats of magic never before recorded in history."

Now there was another dilemma of Tom Riddles memories that came with the soulBut this time it was not sudden they were ready to lock the memories in away to be gradually absorbed and only a small amount of relevant memories trickled by in the conscious mind...

All in all Harry Potter had undergone a major upgrade, at least his mind had. But again an intelligent mind was the strongest thing in the universe

JKR had left Harry with nothing, and no character development whatsoever. In this story Harry will be powerful. If you don't like it don't read it. Not god-like but powerful magically and politically. Not to mention he would use it.

Please do point out any grammatical mistake, but spelling mistakes are not really spelling mistakes, mostly typing mistakes that I try to minimize.

It is my first attempt at ff, please do bear that it mind

Thank you, if you have the time review.

Cannot guarantee the time of next update, but it will be soon.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

Petunia arrived next morning to see the freak still covered in bruises from belt laid on the floor as she had left him but somehow at some primal level she realized that they had gone too far. Sooner or later they will have to pay for all that they had done. You do not just go about and challenge a panther if you are not equally strong. She just hoped that the freak would go away someday and never come back; just like her sister who gradually drifted away from her and that was when they were sisters. She hoped that they do not get in trouble with those freaks. She knew very well that had something happened to Harry Potter, the heir of Potter family she would pay for it. The freaks did not care much for her kind and hated them as much as she hated the freaks. They would just need an excuse and Her family would be lucky to be killed painlessly.

**With Harry**

Harry lay on the floor unconscious yet no one could have guessed how much he had changed overnight. While Vernon's memories remained far too mundane for wizarding folk it still contained day to day working of business and finance management. Overnight Harry knew his way in and out for muggle business dealings and legal matters. He knew all of account numbers and Signatures used by Vernon and some along with his underhand dealings and fraud to the company. For all his faults Vernon was still a brilliant businessman, He used oily tactics and fair use of intimidation of inferiors to go along with his plans that were not the best for the company but would still make way for quite a bit of money for his pockets.

Along with it came the natural understanding of human mind because no one had attempted to read someone's brain as a whole before for the fear of damage to their own brain. And it was a fair precaution because not everyone had the extra magical reserves and potent magic neither would someone knowingly put themselves at such risk. Yet for Harry the detailed knowledge that he had instinctually grasped from the incident would become tremendously beneficial for now he knew the wizarding worlds method of probing someone's mind and his own brand of sending multiple probes at ones all he needed was control which came along exercises that Tom had ones done after graduation to learn more of wand less magic as none of these were taught at Hogwarts . Oh how Tom had grieved the lost opportunity that if he had known and practiced earlier he would have learnt a great deal more and would have easily had more control of magic than he could have achieved now that his magic had stopped growing as much.

Tom was forced to contend with some power boosting rituals to compensate for the lost opportunity. As Harry woke up he did a cursory examination of his body a habit picked up from Tom, because Tom was certainly paranoid, and some of it had rubbed off on Harry.

He checked upon himself making certain mental notes and cursing his uncle along with some plots to harm him, maybe his manhood had to go, or maybe his eyes to be plucked …. Or maybe … well pushing those thoughts aside he had some work to do those thoughts, plots and schemes would have to be pushed aside for now.

He had no major internal injury neither any flesh wounds; just a minor concussion on head as a result of falling none too gently and criss-cross lines that were still fairly red on his stomach and chest. Focusing his magic he tried to reach his magical core.

Now this was something he wished they taught at Hogwarts. Though admittedly it still benefited him as his fellow wizards were not taught either, an advantage he had above others.

A persons Magical core differed with every person, it was a representation of one's soul and imagination, someone's magical core was not something with a definite shape or size it was as- to each his own. A persons mind helped in creating ones image of core such that a person could then manipulate it.

For Tom it was a lake with a small island where the lakes water represented his magic and the water drawn on the island was the one that he manipulated. A person's core was far too large to ever deplete, as it was refilled. Yet there was difference in power that arose from the instinctual grasp on magic, the focus of a person, the body's ability of channeling magic and of course the practice done by person to improve the above qualities. The core in general was the amount of magic that you could manipulate, it increased significantly till you reached seventeen and still kept growing but at a slower rate.

For Harry it was an immense Silver-Golden sun with multiple visible rays in each direction that represented the magic He could manipulate. It was not easy and required years of practice. Not many people cared for it any more since using a wand would bypass it.

But to him it seemed too easy, Tom was a natural occulmen, it aided him to use magic when he did not even know of its existence. To reach his core he had to center his mind, Even Tom had to put some effort despite being a natural occulmen; but Harry had done it instinctively , perhaps the organization of memories had done more that organizing Vernon's memories, his own memories of six years worth had been organized, this would need further investigation . For now he needed to heal.

He knew He was running low on magic, it had not yet recharged to good levels, not to mention his body was not ready to do much in current state, but some amount would not hurt, he quickly manipulated magic in a constant stream to the worse of the wounds which would need healing to avoid scarring .

Next this body needed more nourishment; the Dursley's did not let him eat more than leftovers. Tut-Tut this would not do. He would no longer starve. He quickly manipulated his magic for a minor notice me not charm, a trick Tom learnt at orphanage to avoid other residents when he needed to steal food. It was something that most wizards did instinctively when afraid; the desire of not being noticed was acted upon by the magic. It was a natural defense wizards were born with and if one learnt to use it.

It was natural evolution and one of the forms of magic that was done instinctively by the magical beings to avoid detection and gain an edge. Unlike other branches that required practice and theory to work with this came naturally to most magical beings.

In the orphanage the children were fed. Well as well fed as you would assume for children to be 60 years ago, but Tom did not like to associate with others for petty things as food. NO! he was special and it always felt good to use his abilities it always assured him that he was special.

Now sadly he had to steal food in order to fulfill his empty stomach. Slowly he crept out of the cupboard his aunt had not locked it, perhaps in her panic; he made his way to the refrigerator and quickly chose a selection of fruits and juice and made his way back . He knew that as starved as he was his stomach will not tolerate the heavier food available that was admittedly much tastier. Well soon enough he will recover to enjoy some of those.

Casting a mild notice me not and muggle repelling charm on his cupboard he crept in and helped himself to some of the food. He lay down and went to sleep. Not that the charm would last more than an hour or so.

Next when he woke up it was noon already, stretching his senses he tried to search for someone but found no one, he also observed that his sensed were not as good as he wanted them to be. Well that will have to wait, he was 6 after all. He crept out of his room and out of the house made his way to Dudley's bedroom searching for a specific toy which Dudley recently broke and removed the insulated wire he detached it from the toy and went to the kitchen, skillfully using the knife he cut out the insulations and unwound the multiple threads of fine copper wound together to form the wire. Taking a single strand he dumped the rest of the wire and insulation in the dustbin which was regularly filled with such items. He made way to about three quarters of the stairs. With Judicious use of a sticking charm that he had to try about 50 times to get right he stuck the very thin wire to the wall and let the rest fall near the entrance of his cupboard. He then practiced a few times to cancel the charm and came down the stairs, to wait. As predicted Dudley, arrived from school and ran for his room and Harry pulled the wire effectively tripping Dudley all the way down the stairs. Hopefully a few of his bone will be broken , there was a slight risk of a broken neck, well the pig already had a one inch to start it , no one's going to miss it anyway. A very tiny part of his brain said that as bullying as Dudley is he was still a result of his parents. Well he reasoned that Dudley would inherit his parent's money, so he must suffer for their actions too. Now with Dudley hopefully out of commission for at least a month he would use his time judiciously to plan what to do next and practice magic as much as he could. He thought of going to Diagon Alley but it could be counterproductive to his plans.

The boon of Dudley not going to school was Harry had to stay in his cupboard just like holiday's , He never understood why they did it but it did happen once when Dudley was sick and Harry was not allowed to go to school. Probably the idiots thought that Harry would spread lies about him.

Now he had to play the concerned cousin part and ""save"" Dudley after his fall. Repressing a smirk he carefully dialed the numbers all children are told to in an emergency and immediately started wailing about his injured cousin. It did not take much time for ambulance to arrive and Petunia to be notified about her son falling off the stairs while running on stairs. She knew about her sons habits and did not pay much mind to it to be suspicious of it either; she had a son to care for after all. Without paying Harry any attention she locked the house and went to see the reports of her son who had a broken arm and leg. Harry was mildly disappointed, he had hoped for some more damage.

Yet, Harry could not be happier; he was free to do as he pleased. First he had to meditate and arrange his thoughts and think about how he had landed on the current situation. Why was he placed with these damned muggles, why not a magical orphanage, surely his parents were not stupid enough to name them as his guardians.

Speaking of his parents he suddenly started recalling his time with his parents all those memories that were lost started coming to the front.

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IF you have the time, please drop by and review

Thanks, i don't know the next update date, but it will be soon.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer - I do not own Harry Potter (really sad thing, else Harry would not have married his school broom)**

**Legilimens-CHAPTER -3**

Harry remembered his mother, father, their home and his uncles who used to shout at the top of their lungs that Harry will be the best future Marauder. Harry wondered what happened to them and why were they not taking care of him. He remembered his mother drawing runes in blood while she used a full body bind on him. It had been very uncomfortable for a - not yet one year old to sit and she had to resort to it. He remembered as he cried at the top of his lungs after the terrible ordeal of painting runes and on him and performing the ritual was done. Oh how he had enjoyed all the attention he got after crying. It felt good, honestly it did.

Now Harry Pondered his life, he did not know all of Tom Riddles memories, just the relevant ones that Tom had gone ahead and released while merging. That involved some basic spells, some diagnostic charms, and the name of his skill that he had used i.e. legilimency. He knew that the counter of Legilimency that was Occulmency. He also knew what Tom and his little circle of "friends" knew of Prophesy.

Now he came to think about it, he was astonished that the child of prophesy was here discarded like a used cloth in midst of muggles. From the little of Toms memories he knew that Dumbledore was the listener of prophesy, then why did Dumbledore leave the child here. It smelt of meddling, and there were not many meddlesome fags he knew in wizarding world. Long term thinking was not something done by most wizards. Wizards who with a wave of a little wooden stick could do things that muggles did not or rather could not do in, well ever. Yet this made wizards naïve, and careless. Just wave the stick and-Yay all mistakes undone. Oh you broke your toy, poor dear, just wave your little stick mutter reparo and here now it is as good as new. Wizards never learn planning and restraint, purebloods did learn politics, finances but did not learn to apply that sense in day to day life, just in the big halls filled by geezers known as warlocks which were collectively called Wizengamot.

Or was old dumbles dead? Maybe he finally croaked, Oh he pitied those already in afterlife whose affairs he would now be meddling in. Poor people, he could now imagine poor angels to whom the old wizard would be showing wide grandfatherly smiles with little twinkling eyes behind the half moons he wore and would try pretend to be their dear old grandpa, demanding things such as - " I must insist that it is imperative that I acquire the Wings that you wear in nice sunlight golden color, after all I am the leader of light It would go long way to help the masses if I acquired those lovely wings and some nice golden woolens socks in the same color, alas all my woolen socks were left behind when I departed the mortal world for the next great adventure!, so when will my set be ready?, I expect them to be ready as soon as possible with a spare set at the earliest convenience." just as he did in the wizarding world where he was the dear old gramps of almost all muggleborns, or at least those who mattered.

No it was a little too early to pin it to Dumbledore. He would have to survey the neighborhood and determine if he was being watched. Maybe his mother was naïve and wrote it in their will for him to be raised in muggle world, probably to protect him from the inbred idiots. She certainly did hold the sway of James Potter, from what he remembered his mother made most decisions and James certainly went along with it.

If this was Dumbledore's doing then he would have him watched. Probably by some squib or some muggle acquaintance that he used in last war to keep track of werewolf activities. Dumbledore was not above breaking the secrecy law and hire some muggles who were sworn to secrecy. He had done it to track werewolves that wizards would not go near for anything. Muggles were expendable in that way, they would do that if given appropriate incentive that is money. A wizard would not go near a werewolf and would prefer no money to being bitten and then having no money. A wizard could conjure clothes and basic necessities and could live comfortably with very little money, but muggles required money and were not as self sufficient individually as wizards were, not that it was their fault. They lacked magic and it was something that was not remedied till yet.

He would need to investigate before he concluded, and with his newfound skill he could scan all these muggles and most wizards.

Speaking of muggles now he came to think about it Did Dudley deserved to hospitalize so that he Harry could enjoy a vacation?

He pondered that Dudley was not essentially some evil spawn. He did what his parents taught him and emulated them; he was essentially a result of his parent's deeds. Yet now he came to think about it his parents encouraged that behavior to bully Harry which later extended to others of his age. Yet still Dudley was fed by his parents, clothed by them, he essentially was the pride of his parents then if he was used by his parents against Harry he will have to suffer, Harry would make sure of it. If you try to cut steel with an iron sword, the steel would not try to save the iron sword because it was the wielder at fault. No the sword will be broken and same happened with Dudley, if was playing the role of ickle duddykins who ridiculed the freak. Now he will get hurt in the process. Harry was not some sort of saint who would try to save Dudley from his parents. He was not responsible for him, his parents were and if Dudley got hurt because he did what he was taught to do and the person to whom he wronged retaliated, he, Harry was not at fault. If Dudley wronged him, Dudley paid. He was not going to warn Dudley or later tell him that he hurt him, oh no, that would not do him good. Dudley will learn or rather be trained like a circus lion that bad things happened when Dudley tried to hurt Harry .

Now onto some magic practice, Tom loved magic, or perhaps it would be better to say Tom only loved magic. Harry too loved magic, magic was his savior, his magic saved him from being beaten and if learnt to wield it his magic he would never have to worry about anything. He would now rely on himself and only himself, people betrayed people, look at him now sent to live with magic hating muggles while he was the savior of their world. Where were the child services , the wizarding child services were born before their muggle counterparts , there were too many cases of abuse mostly of muggleborn children and they were taken care after they arrived to Hogwarts . It was political propaganda as the abused muggleborns were more likely to stay in the wizarding world. But he Harry was not the first wizard born child to be sent to live with muggles, in those cases the wizarding child services paid regular visits to let them know of their heritage. Mostly such people were half bloods with one dead parent.

Too many questions swam in his mind, luckily he had 5 years to prepare at least he thought he did have 5, maybe someone would come for him earlier. Nah, if no one came for 6 years he was probably forgotten, and all if any people did try to adopt him would have given up.

Silently but with focus Harry tried to levitate an object. He dare not try any structured spell; it would certainly raise alarms if there were wards keyed to ministry underage detection.

Raw magic on the other hand was other story, it had intent, it had power but it was not structured like the spells created by spell crafters who tied certain words with wand movements and intent to make spells which were made with an arithmetic equation that defined power and regulated the burst of power that must be provided while uttering the words. The structured spells were immensely smooth compared to doing things without spells because the equations and runes drawn **(the wand movements are runes and symbols being drawn in air for a spell)** while casting defined the power and intent a lot more than the focus of caster. It did not mean the caster could not manipulate spells with his own will.

But spells had limiters, like a reducto could only do so much! To create better explosions one could use bombarda, which had higher limit. It was done so that less powerful wizards do not add more power to spell by losing control and later suffer due to exhaustion, it was also done so that work that required finesse could not be botched due to loss of control on casters part. Magical reserves were almost infinite it was the body channeling magic that made things difficult. A good caster could cast multiple spells at a single moment while someone with more potential and more available magic to manipulate could simply bruteforce multiple spells without control and finesse.

An advanced caster could learn spells and practice them to muscle memory such that they don't require wand motions anymore. Those who studied subject or those who experimented while practicing would know how a wand movement if not used would remove certain limitations' the spell had been created with. Or, how if the caster does not intend something, and did not move the corresponding wand movement; the particular part of spell would not work.

A classic example was the expelliarmus, which defined that one on whom it was used would lose his wand, its principle was to give a sudden jerk on the persons hand on whom it was cast. Yet if a certain wand motion was not performed AND the caster intended to throw the whole person back instead of jerking the victims hand the persons wand would remain where it was provided the grip was strong , but the person himself would be thrown back violently. Or if the person did not move their wand on the motion that intended to limit the power **(which was decided while the spell was crafted for an average human)**, one could easily overpower the spell and the victim unfortunately would have to part with their hand!

Thus Harry decided that no structured spells should be used, rather raw magic would have to do, even if it was less efficient combined with no wand signature , it won't go raising flags; Just ignored as accidental bursts.

He practiced levitation and was glad that he could easily levitate even his bed; it was quite an achievement for a 6 year old to be the one who was in control while doing it.

Next came banishing which a bit difficult, after about 50 tries he was able to banish things. It was just that he had to get the feel of his magic when he banished something. Once he got the feeling of his magic he had to learn how to replicate it at his beck and call. Then there was the aspect of power. After about an hour he was exhausted. He helped himself to some more food he acquired and went to sleep. It was a question of quality of body and adaptability to magic rather than less magic available. The magical core was near infinite but the amount available to manipulate freely was lesser. The body felt physically weaker after long casting. A curse breaker could cast for about 10 hours non stop and with the help of potions maybe 14, but more than that would make even standing upright difficult.

Harry was woken by a rather loud call for him by his aunt; the repelling charms had worn off. He had to make breakfast. Dudley had returned with casts on arm and leg which would require 5 weeks to recover.

Quickly preparing breakfast Harry filled his own plate to the amount he should be eating and cast the notice-me-not-that-made-Tom-special. It was childish to joke, yet he was a child and it felt good to scorn the memory of Dark Lord.

Speaking of which Harry could not wait to get all the memories, though he did not fancy having to watch tortures, he did require the magical knowledge. Tom's knowledge was not all round as he made people believe, he was rather focused on charms and by extension curses, in short magic that directly showed results. He was also knowledgeable in runes that were used in rituals but was not used to other practical uses they had. He was rather weak **(when compared to his skill in charms)** in transfiguration which he did not believe was useful in duels as all his study was focused on power and violence.

Harry watched as Dudley was fed by His horse faced mother, honestly he had one hand broken, he was not a cripple!

Sadly he remembered his own mother and wondered if he was to live with them would he turn out like Dudley. From the little he knew about James Potter, he was an arrogant spoiled brat. That knowledge came from Severus Snape when he was quizzed about potential pureblood recruits; or rather pureblood idiots that could be recruited and made to part with some…err... Rather substantial wealth for the common. Err… his personal cause.

Now Harry wondered he had yet to see the night of October 81 from Tom's perspective. Well he wondered if he would grieve, feel guilt or feel weird.

His uncle would have to stay under observation for some days to determine if he would fully recover. Doctors had already advised his aunt for proper exercise routine to be followed when his uncle returned and petunia was obviously telling Dudley about it . Harry understood the meaning; she was trying to tell Dudley that he must exercise because he was already chubby and unhealthy for his age. Where did the excuse of big bones and sturdy body go?

At least his aunt had some sense, THIS was not good, and your enemies if really stupid were dangerous because a rational mind could never predict their next move. If your enemies were stupid and not overly so then it was good. If your enemies were intelligent it was the worst case scenario.

He hoped Petunia did not know much about the wizarding world to connect dots such as not able to recall going near cupboard under stairs in the future, or going near it and suddenly finding a new random task, it would not do if she knew about notice me not, because they were notice me not, they did not provide invisibility.

Well he would have to wait and watch. At least his aunt thought he did not know about magic.

Harry returned to his room to further practice. His magic was erratic as expected of a child and it would only grow, yet if he learnt to control it, it will grow faster.

Every child went through surges when the disturbance in core was at its peak, it was the result of the core maximizing itself and finding its limits, if the disturbances were low the core grew till it was unable to hold the surges. As a result the stronger the more you tried control the more it tried to disrupt by increasing its size till it surged. It was not the core itself that grew it was the reserve that could be used. A person with small core would not be able to cast many spells at the same time simultaneously or cast some very powerful spell or spells that although simple were used on a larger scale but one after the other anyone could cast for hours at a time. But someone with a bigger core such as Voldemort, Tom or Flitwick could cast multiple spells at the same time and they also had access to spell that could use more magical power output.

Wizarding children went through periods when they were more agitated and prone to accidental magic which was the body trying to maximize the core, without harming them.

At eleven the core settled somewhat and the surges stopped and the growth stabilized and grew steadily with some variations depending upon the regular use of magic.

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I hope I tried to explain the unexplained rules of magic

The plot is outlined, with the first year and second year planned.

The third year is to be short, with fourth being long and Harry emerging as a player rather than a pawn.

Harry here is a person who is actually a normal person with ambition and the power to achieve.

A.N.-Harry **is not some stupid hero, yes he will be caring but only to those who are innocent, who try to help themselves, who acknowledge their mistakes. IF someone was an unwilling pawn of either of the LORDS (GUESS WHO), Harry will not go out of his way to save them. If people were tossed at him as spies and weapons He will try to discredit them, chase them away, or hurt them. He will not go and try to save them, let those people walk all over him because those poor people were misguided. ""IF YOU ARE MISGUIDED, IT IS YOUR FAULT TO HAVE THE WRONG GUIDE, HIRE A BETTER ONE TO LEAD YOU ELSE YOU WILL FACE YOUR DOOM"". Harry will make use of opportunities, he will use the war to his own end, He will not sacrifice himself for strangers, for friends yes if worse came over. He will save those that mattered to him.**

**Dumbledore will be bashed, but Harry will respect him, Dumbledore will not be outright vindictive, he is a manipulator who tortures more than a cruciatus does slowly, mentally ,and without pointing his own wand at the victim , if he plans an assassination the person would first go into coma , declared insane and would be fed slow poison . He doesn't make quick work of something till absolutely necessary. Dumbledore is just another politician who plays people as he sees fit. He considers his solutions to a problem as the only solution to a problem and the result he desires as the only result that should be favorable and acceptable to all.**

**Nymphadora ( forgive me Tonks , but u can't hurt me ) will be a 2 year but her true age will be 2 years older she will be a delayed student.**

**Don't expect some love story, Tonks will be paired but it will not be some silly crush and don't expect much till end of third year.**

**I don't know when next update will be, but I will try my best. **

**If you have the time please do review.**

**And could someone please tell me how to reply to reviews, directly where they are.**

**Naginator , I hope your concerns about how vindictive Harry is are satisfied.**

**FOR those who reviewed and I did not name them, I still do appreciate your effort. **

**IF someone has an idea later in the story that can be added they are welcome to share them in reviews , the plot and ending are fixed but things in mid are really flexible with just ideas that need to be put together.**

**This fic is without a beta; please do keep it in mind.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Legilimens-Chapter **_4_

The next day Harry woke up, made breakfast which he made sure he helped himself with, returned to his room practiced his control, you could do only so much without spells, it was sad that he could not enlarge his cupboard without spells, expansion charms required theory, precise equations and a well structured spell. But really, why should he live in a freaking cupboard. Yeah right, because he was a freak!

The Dursley's will pay! Quit whining he scolded himself; he had better things to do than waste more thoughts on filthy no-brains. He had a recon mission today. With a shit eating grin he got out of his err. .. Room and went out for a walk. But the neighbors were giving him looks, yeah right he was the nasty potter boy, spawn of two good for nothings who got drunk and snuffed out in a car crash leaving their nasty son behind who did not have manners, and was grounded for more time then he was let out. In their eyes he was a thief who darkened their places just by being their, never mind the fact that he was not even 10 years old. He had some plans but they were vague for now and all depended upon his return to the magical world. Once settled his affairs their (relatively) he would make sure to put the pig-Dursley, the horseface-Dursley, and the Giant-Pig-cross-extraordinaire Dursley.

Well magic was special, he was special so why not use some of it, a quick notice me not charm later he walked in the door for number 1, the nastiest woman in all lived there who was the gossip distributor here. Now it was scanning time! He looked directly in eyes of the neighbor and willed himself to know her most kept secrets and was disgusted with the images he got there; she was cheating on her husband who was more of a guest in his own house. Poor man if he stayed there he would definitely know that his wife and one of his junior were REALLY-REALLY-REALLY good friends. Well no point in knowing more she was not some wizards toadie sent to monitor him. He almost felt sorry for the guy, well almost. It was his own fault after all.

Next came number two, husband was out and his wife was cooking nothing interesting here. A perfectly normal family, one Dursley's should emulate to appear normal.

He then scanned as many as he could and did not find anything. Now as the last one, the one he least suspected because the lady lived alone with some pet cats, probably was a cat breeder. The reason was if someone was sent for his protection he would be competent, Figgs was not at all competent. Yet he had to check. Soon the house came to view along with a black cat, now he carefully looked at it the cat was not a cat but rather a kneazle and from the looks of it, it was guarding the house. Kneazels were really intelligent specie and would have surely spotted his notice me not because it hid his appearance not his sound and smell. It had gone to warn her owner.

Hastily he dropped the notice me not. Sure enough the woman rushed out to greet him.

"Hello Harry, did you come here to play with my cats"

"No Mrs. Figg I was just passing by"

"Were you going somewhere particular Harry, children must not go out unaccompanied, Return to your home dear."

Harry pretended to be downtrodden and mumbled "My aunt said to get out and not return until it was time to cook food ''

He carefully watched what memories these words will bring out. He was appalled to see that this woman was planted by Dumbledore. She gave regular reports of how he was, to all about his mistreatment. She once tried to object and Dumbledore simply said that it was for the greater good that Harry does not know of wizarding world and remain humble. He went ahead to say that Figg was exaggerating about abuse and he had monitoring charms on Harry. That was the problem with most people, if Dumbledore said it was good it was, if Dumbledore said a person was evil, the people knew all along that the person was evil!

Dumbledore could go ahead and say that for the greater good Slughorn and Dumbledore must have sex, if Slughorn refused a new law would pass to allow Dumbledore use imperious on Slughorn. Dumbledore had enormous political clout, Almost all light families (if they refused they were declared as going-dark).And some minor dark families whom he had blackmailed (which incidentally were later declared light BECAUSE they were supporting Dumbledore)

Now he had to try and stay out of scrutiny AND find a way to neutralize this threat. For now he said his goodbyes and returned to his relative's house. Just as he entered he was met with a shriek and enquiries for where he was.

For his punishment he was to prepare food and return without eating. Dudley looked particularly smug until Harry returned a grin a goblin would feel proud of; this exchange went unnoticed by his aunt.

So a week went by and Harry practiced his control and took strolls. Now today Vernon had to return but was advised for rest. Vernon did return looking quite healthy much to Harry's dismay. (He was only on a wheelchair, which he would not need after a week)

As soon as he saw Harry Vernon felt fear and Harry who had a new habit of scanning surface thoughts caught it. Harry immediately started programming suggestions, one could not control another person with legilimency but one could plant suggestions. It was because if one forced an issue the person would react and fight but subtle hints and suggestions went unnoticed. It was the reason legilimency was banned subject without proper license (meaning one had to part with at least 5,000 galleons.).

Harry manipulated it start reacting like a defensive yet dangerous animal. In essence it meant that Vernon would mostly ignore Harry because he feared him and be content with it. Rather useful if you think about it, Vernon won't bother Harry and let him be he won't dare try beating him because that meant a repeat of last time.

He carefully started damaging some parts that controlled his right leg. Now the fat lump won't be able to move one of his legs forever and would need a crutch. "Serves him right for try to beat him, worthless child abuser", thought Harry savagely.

Two Years later

Two years had passed and Harry's life had improved, He still lived in cupboard but He was fed he had more privileges to do as he pleased. He scored well in classes, considered a good child he also read Figgs mind frequently to stay in touch with wizarding news and knew his status as the boy-who-lived. But most of all he practiced with wand less magic, performing which had become more efficient he did not need hand gestures anymore which were a boon, he grew tall, taller than his age. Not that he could do much other than a few detection charms, summoning and banishing.

Most of all he Discovered he was a metamorphagus, such gifts were common in more powerful of the magical population no one knew why the manifested and they only manifested in old families , this was the reason that blood purity mattered to those, yes blood did matter but not that much, The chances of a pureblood to have above average power were greater than those of a first generation witch of wizard but this advantage was wasted when you come from a bunch of people who were the sons of their fathers sisters , thus the grounds evened out and it irked the pureblood because even being pureblood did not bring anything more than a habit to sneer , money of ancestors if they left you any and a huge amount of ego. Sure if your parents were both powerful, the chances of you being powerful increased but being inbred destroyed it all.

Muggleborns had their own share of problems, they did not come with any ambition as all the future plans they had, they were in muggle world, and it took them a while to get accustomed to being magical.

Also muggleborns had their own share of logic, one would call muggle logic. If a muggleborns was to climb a wall, he would conjure a hook and rope and try to climb it, or maybe blast the wall cross it and repair it.

Muggles were destructive in that matter. While a wizard raised child would try for apparition, use a reduction charm to shrink a part of wall then simply climb over it and undo the charm. It was something you get used to only after living with wizards.

Every society has its own way to solve a certain problem native to them , muggles used what was available to them (rather efficiently given the circumstances), but wizards had a whole new set of options available that muggles only knew to exist in fairy tales.

Back to being a metamorph, his aunt once cut his hair (he dare not use magic in front of her, she would get ideas), and to his delight his hair grew back. His ability was not developed and he had to work hours, days, and weeks to bring it in conscious control. But it was immensely rewarding he could change his height to a limit, his features, namely hair and eyes.

OF course he was punished by his aunt, but who cared that he was not allowed food for the day; he was so absorbed in his new ability that he even forgot to acquire some food. He even snickered because no child should stay in front of mirror so long, even girls did not and he did.

Dudley had learnt to be cautious that Harry hunting was a really bad idea when while doing so he was known to be tremendously accidental prone, he lost balance more than a drunk did and many bad things happened from sprains to fractures. He learnt to stay away from Harry. Harry also had friends at school though he got bored with them because he was really mentally mature and children were really amusing but only for a short time. Not to mention magical beings matured faster to be able to handle magic.

That did not mean he did not have fun. He was rather popular because he was the only one of his age that Dudley Dursley's feared. Harry was mild mannered, polite and a charmer all things that Tom was and then some. People wanted to be in his company because he showed confidence.

He found that Figg did not report anything of this sort to dumbles because she really did doubt Dumbledore, while Dumbledore was known as champion of muggleborns and squibs their life rarely turned out to be better. While squibs were hunted in last war for being a shame to wizards and hence Figg owed it to Harry, as did most squibs. She simply "forgot" to mention that Harry's life had improved to Dumbledore because he only asked how he was treated and the answer was always that he slept in a cupboard. How she found out and monitored he did not know, but he suspected that those cats reported it to her, kneazles were cunning enough to even slip by his guard. And watch over him. They very smart and knew how to be discrete. The Squibs and some other non-humans had seen the dirtier shade of wizarding world and were quite a bit more insightful. They did not worship Dumbledore, they had no reason to, since he had done absolutely nothing for them in his 45 years of presence in Wizengamot. He did cast vote in their favor but never did he introduce any bill for them. Harry Potter had unknowing and as a baby saved them, they had no doubts about their fate if Voldemort was not defeated and allowed to take over.

Harry tried to find out his own animagus form and was not successful because his personality was not yet developed enough to be permanent. (He did not yet get Toms knowledge, and the influx was very slow. He only knew the third year (introductory classes which were started from third year and were optional) curriculum of wizarding arithmetic which did not teach anything useful such as creating rituals, spells and how to use numbers along with runes to enchant). It seemed like Tom had planned it in such manner, He knew that while Harry's mind would develop, he will be intelligent with knowledge far beyond his years along with experience that came with most memories of Vernon Dursley it did not make him too mature he was still childlike .

But he had erased most of the memories of Vernon through his well practiced occulmency he only knew the relevant information such as account numbers, contacts etc. No need for him to fill his mind with Vernon's memories.

Now Harry was contemplating what to do. Sure with his steadily growing magic he had to learn control both of his enemies had had years to do so, They would rip him apart, not only they had more power they had more control too.

Harry on the other hand only had surprise, deception and information on his side. He had no allies, none whatsoever, either they had abandoned him or they were dead. He knew of Black and how he was imprisoned (Harry does not know Tom's version yet. Tom has decided a schedule of knowledge so that Harry plans accordingly, In short Tom gave him skills and knowledge to master, while Harry was not as mature and cunning as Tom was because of being older, Tom had decided a schedule for Harry so that Harry being a child did not rush to do things that he had no chance of doing yet).

Harry had to tread carefully, plan all possibilities and get favorable outcome. He needed allies and information, right now only Tom's memories and Figg were his sources which needed to expand.

So for another year Harry practiced arithmacy and basic runes, controlled his magic. Read muggle fiction which he enjoyed as much as dumbledore enjoyed lemon drops, which if measured would produce disturbing results.

Harry decided that even if he tried to succeed there were many variables and might result in failure. So it was better to enjoy some time he had away from planning and actually enjoy his time , who knew what future would turn out like. Besides muggle fiction had varied themes, the library was a good place to read and some of those ideas harry decided to use in future. Wizards were stagnant because they lacked ideas, lacked drive to do something new and were lazy but muggles had to survive without magic. Some of those ideas were used by muggle scientists that were taken from fiction so why not Harry use them in magic. They surely would make up for his lack of power if he was able to achieve it.

With such thoughts in mind Harry lay down and went to sleep looking forward to another day, something he did not do 2 years previously.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter. Neither do I own any other fictional character.**

**Legilimens-Chapter 5**

As Harry turned nine the information he was receiving turned rather interesting. He was being educated on pureblood politics. Tom did not like politics he considered it risky and variable game in which one must have time patience, influence and a habit of parting with something in exchange ( something which Tom hated was parting with something he had even if it was no use to him whether it was knowledge, artifacts or money). Harry now knew how to keep his chin at the right angle when you want something done with no questions asked except the price of course. He now knew who he should contact and pay the right amount of money to get a certain job done, whether it was information gathering or it was an assassination. Just name the price and the results were always satisfactory until any conflict of interest occurred.

Another thing that he learned were certain simple wards such as a notice me not ward which did not cease until user stopped them. Another ward was a counter ward to ministry detection scheme. If applied correctly ministry wards cast at a place will not be able to track magic inside the perimeter of warded region.

It was something tom learnt in his fourth year so that certain magic could be performed and not tracked. Harry got the hint as now he could power runes without detection. Runes were another method of casting spells which were of higher quality but were not appreciated because quantity topped quality. Now a structured runic spell could be detected by ministry as it had wards around all known muggleborn residences. That way, if certain person tried something wandlessly (which themselves had ministry tracking charms) or removed tracking charm on wands while at Hogwarts they were still caught and a lovely pre-recorded letter was sent. But the ward stopped it.

He just needed some blood to make up for a quality ward stone, and a stone on which he could draw runes. Both were easy to find. He remembered how his mother had done something similar to protect him.

Drawing the runes on the stone slab and all around it in a circle harry pushed his magic to power his arrangement, the stone glowed red and the blood vanished, but if you looked carefully the stone now had a reddish black coating. The stone could not hold much magic but blood could. In fact blood was one of the best conductors used to channel magic. Once enchanted the runes become a part of stone. The stone itself now had the property of repelling. This was the brilliance of magic and its true power, it was not linear.

It was the reason magic was called magic, because it was not linear, unlike energy that could interconvert from one form to another; magic was all about bending reality itself. The rules that guide and govern the universe and various properties, the rules that shaped reality to what it was, those were the rules that can be bent by magic. It was true-magic, to change reality and laws of the universe itself to your own convenience. That was why Harry was confident to embrace his magic, it was also the reason that he had not run away from the magical world. Harry had thought about it and concluded that in a war among Magical and Non magical, if the world survived, than the magicals would win. Contrary to what most muggleborns believed, the wizards too had their own means of mass destruction. A single cursed object could kill many thousand people. It was one of the reasons why the ministry regulated knowledge. One single incantation of fiendfire would set fire to whole city and no amount of water would extinguish it. That was the reason a magical warding grid was used to monitor such spells. If out of hand, fiendfire had potential to do more damage than a nuke. It devoured and it devoured leaving nothing but charred remains behind. Cursed fire as it was, it was sentient and with the intent to first consume its target and its caster as its priorities, unless you could master it of course. The dark wizard who created fiendfire did it so that even if someone learnt of the incantation, the fire would kill him during testing. It was designed that way. A single knife could be enchanted to cut throats and it would float around and kill everything it came in contact with. What was more disturbing was that sharpening and cutting charms were put on most wizarding cutting tools, and floating charms that lasted years were put upon children toys, like Frisbees. Add both of them and you have a truly devastating weapon against muggles. Contrary to popular belief the wizards did have such counter measures in case the secret was out. Self preservation was enough to even make wizarding world sweat and work. The Aurors all had red robes that were enchanted against anti arrow charms, one could shoot as many non magical projectiles as they want and not one could reach it. Some muggleborns did try to take down the dark lord with grenades and guns, their bodies were neatly cut and thrown in mid of Diagon Alley, those masks and robes were magical for a reason not just to satisfy Tom's desire of dramatics. A non magical bomb simply could not pierce the enchantments; the enchantments if permanent would simply bend the rules of the universe, to counter them one would need magical explosion that would break through those counter measures. The spells added new rules to the material of cloth, such as –" impervious", then water or any other liquid listed with the charm would simply slide off, it would not make contact. Guns and cannons existed long enough for wizards to take notice.

Since his cupboard was not under detection and Harry was delighted! He wanted to try some spells to compare them to wandless magic. He was disgruntled to note that they were superior in terms of power required as they were more efficient, they had more limitations.

Now he could practice all the runes he wanted but for that he required some tools and material. It was easy to come by as all he required was wooden blocks and something to carve.

But it required practice and precision as once u carve a rune if carved wrong was best to be destroyed by non magical means as trying to cast reparo many times charged those runes and may yield devastating results.

All civilizations had their own set of runes , the Egyptian runes were used most commonly as they had structures built that had runes with their practical uses such as preservation, traps, protective enchantments etc. Not to mention the fact that many families had their own set of runes from which spells were created and hence were labeled family spells. During creation of such spells sometimes they were tied so that only a few could use them.

Hogwarts taught runes but never taught much practical use. Most of the time students were required to hand over essays over examples of how a certain rune was used at a certain place, never teaching the practical. It was irritating to Tom as he had to pursue warding independently along with writing assays which were sometimes specified in feats. Why were they asked to do so? He had suspicions that it was done to hold back muggleborns which would give rise to new pureblood houses in a few generations and hence they might start their own family spells.

Harry practiced carving and calligraphy to have a precise grasp of runes as they required great concentration. He soon had a small stone tied with a permanent notice me not charm that would make the others even ignore any smell and sound. It would only give away if someone was very specifically looking for a notice me not charm or if the person carrying the stone came in contact with someone. Also the user of stone, which is Harry, may make himself noticeable to someone.

Harry also performed a ritual that was undetectable and most purebloods used which made the body absorb all that was necessary from food leaving harmful ingredients, it also had the side effect of making all non magical poisons entering to leave the body and they were not absorbed in blood during digestion.

It was one of the reasons that purebloods had better looks. The ministry conveniently banned most rituals permitting them to be used only by healers for healing that did not mean it stopped people from performing them, but again all books were banned and the muggleborns would never enter knockturn alley, hence most muggleborns missed such benefits.

Sadly for Harry the runes that Tom remembered were not ordered and Harry did not have books, so he dare not create his own arrays, if something went wrong no one would be helping him.

Harry also started exercising as he was soon going to hit puberty. He was among the taller children for his age but Tom had impressed upon Harry that looking good was necessary if you had any political ambition, if you look good, people listen. Yeah humans, muggle or magical were stupid that way.

Harry was about 9 when he first started practicing apparition. Tom had learnt it and it took very less toll on ones magic. Harry started practicing and was able to do it about 2 months later silently and without any movement. It was a great feat, now he could travel anywhere without trouble.

Harry had a small stack of money buried in the garden acquired from his uncle of course over the years. He gathered the money and silently apparated in a small alley near leaky cauldron. Putting the notice me not stone to good use he reached the blank wall, pushing some magic to his fingers he silently tapped some innocent looking bricks and grinned as the wall parted. Silently he reached the bank and quickly deactivated the stone. The goblins were surprised as even they had not sensed anybody. But Harry marveled at their alertness. The stone was powerful but had Harry stepped upon the stairs he would have alerted the guards as the stairs were enchanted to do so.

Goblins were difficult to understand. If you paid the correct price they would do almost anything for you. But they were known to be treacherous. Even to their allies. They had somewhat unstable nature, one moment they would be your best friends but if they thought you were showing less cruelty they would turn on you. As long as you held something for them they would not betray you but if one did not take necessary precaution they would turn their back on you the moment the deal was completed.

They needed their fix of cruelty or you would be their next target. They were like a weapon which required seeing someone in pain, as long as you use it they were your best friends.

Wizards after the last rebellion had taken some precautions such as taking a magical oath from their leader (to whom goblins themselves gave a loyalty oath) and hence there were no more rebellions. The leader of last war with goblins had further taken the insight of stopping goblins from growing powerful by burning many of their libraries and research all the while killing many of their scholars and teachers. This brought the goblins to a dark age as the goblins had already lost their place in Africa and Asia where dwarves flourished. Asia had gone for Dwarves earlier as their population was more. Africa was somewhat on a treaty where banking was done by dwarves and all the pyramids found belonged to goblins to exploit.

Goblins led a long life and hence the birth rate too was low. Right now the goblins were SOMEWHAT civil because of the humiliating defeat and lack of resources. Even the incompetent ministry could raid the goblins and seize control. But the purebloods had cunningly not done so as Gringotts was a very good place to hide all Dark items as no goblin was allowed to enter a vault unless invited. IN short goblins respected power; they also had an uncanny ability to detect potential. Treachery ran deep in them and they had lost many wars just because they betrayed each other. A rebellion was once suppressed by throwing bags of gold on the battlefield such that it showered the goblins with gold. The goblins started picking gold and tried to escape leaving others to battle. Sadly for them the coins had a small parchment stuck with a disillusionment charm on them. Portkeys were a new invention in those times and the goblins never knew when they were portkeyed to a room full with spikes. Too many were killed that way and the coins were called the "Galleons of blood and greed". Considered unlucky by wizards they were kept in a museum where the owning family got a good amount of money over the years.

Harry currently had brown hair and blue eyes with his height increased to 5'2 looking like a third year. He confidently strode to a goblin and asked to change his pounds to galleons. Ignoring the rude behavior Harry walked back and out of gringotts. He went to Madam Malkins and bought a black cloak with hood. Wearing the cloak and he silently walked to Knockturn Alley where he went to second hand wand shop. The wands were piled as Gregorovitch's, Ollivanders etc. He made way to gregorovitch as he would buy an Ollivander wand at a later date and if he already had a Ollivander wand then Ollivander would know.

After some struggle he found one that suited him, a cherry with unicorn hair 9 ½ inches. Old wands did not have tracking charms. Paying 24 galleons for the wand after some bargain he went to check the price list and cursed. All the potent potion ingredients were very highly priced as ministry was breathing down on most people who dealt with them after the last war.

Harry wished he had more money and suddenly was assaulted by a new set of memories. In which Tom had hidden stashes of ingredients and money and covered the place with a fidelius. The fidelius was a complex bit of magic and the information was strictly suppressed by ministries all over Europe and America as when a place was protected by fidelius charm the place went out of reality, much like making a place unplottable. When a place was made unplottable it went out of phase but it could be detected by magical means if someone was nearby actively looking for it. Thus all the lost pyramids were found, but Fidelius Hid a place such that the place stopped existing for everyone but someone who the secret keeper told about. Only those who knew could interact with it. It was the Ultimate protection. Unless of course you were an idiot and made wrong choice of a keeper, or in Tom's case just unlucky, making himself secret keeper he had made 7 outlets for the same secret. Naturally due to the fusion Harry had access to the fidelius.

Quickly exiting the leaky cauldron Harry made his way back to the alley in muggle London and silently apparated to Voldemort's secret stash. He had acquired Himself about 3 million galleons and a huge amount potion ingredients. The place was built so that if Voldemort somehow lost the war he could flee and use this money and ingredients. The place had a small trunk with 6 locks and a hidden compartment just near the trunk was a crystal with runes engraved. Harry touched the crystal and pushed his magic in it, immediately the whole room was packed and arranged in his trunk. The first five had ingredients, some books and sixth had money. The last compartment had 4 rooms where one was heavily warded that could be used for rituals and dueling.

Harry was amazed on Voldemort's planning, he had thought about everything. No one knew of this place and Tom himself was the secret keeper.

Harry Pushed his magic again in the crystal, shrunk the trunk down and tapped it thrice with his wand and said a password in parseltongue which applied tracking charms on trunk tied to him and made the trunk resemble a simple silver ring on which one would not take another glance.

Exiting the small safe house, he apparated away. Soon the crystal glowed red and many creatures made of fire erupted burning everything down leaving no evidence. The Fiendire was a sure way to destroy all sort of evidence. Satisfied with a successful day he surrendered himself to sleep. The next day after school Harry went to leaky cauldron and made way to knockturn alley and to a pub. He reached to the bartender and spoke in a clear voice – "information worth 15000 is needed". It was a code that signified that a person was ready to pay at least the mentioned some for information and the price will not be less than that. The informer could ask for more if he wanted and a price could be settled. The barman gave a piercing look, shrugged his shoulders and discreetly directed him towards the stairs. Calling for someone to take his place the barman made his way the stairs and dragged Harry in a room. Picking Harry by his collar he directed his wand at Harry and asked aggressively –"Who sent you?" Harry smirked and banished the man wandlessly towards the wall and released his wand while sending a powerful stinging hex on the man's stomach. The men grabbed his stomach and Harry pocketed his wand. The man got up, smirked and asked – "Polyjuice?"

Harry merely nodded.

"Okay ask what do you want to know about"

"I need all information on Harry Potter, and the events surrounding the boy"

"Well I would ask for 5000 galleons for accurate information seeing this is not exactly what you have come to ask for is it?"

Harry handed him the required amount in an enlarged pouch and the man started without preamble-"The boy is really a gold mine for me as you are not the first person who has inquired about him over the years. The Potters went to hiding over Dumbledore's decision and were betrayed, apparently by Sirius Black. Many people disagree over it as Black and Potter were seen together over the years and Black was said to be disowned by family. The Ministry does not have any records of Trials and Black was sent to Azkaban without trial on testimony of Dumbledore stating that he was the secret keeper."

"Black was caught red handed laughing after blowing up about a dozen muggles. Out of the small group of close friends that Potter had only the werewolf remains. He currently runs errands for Dumbledore, finding people Dumbledore intends to find. He is a good tracker and has a good mind, said to be totally devoted to Dumbledore. Potter boy was sent to muggle relatives on basis of power magic evoked by "love" of his mother and is currently reported to live with them. The Potter wills was sealed by Dumbledore saying Harry would like to hear his parents last wishes when he was ready. Due to the euphoria induced by defeat of the Dark Lord most people did not question him saying "Dumbledore Knows the best for their savior". Potters files are sealed by the ministry and Dumbledore is supposed to visit him instead of child services so that he is not in danger".

"What about his Godfather or Godmother if any?"

"Black was his godfather and Alice Longbottom was Godmother. Both were unable to take care of child as Black is in Azkaban and Longbottom couple is in permanent spell damage ward of St. Mungo's"

"Good, now tell me about Longbottoms."

"The Longbottoms were both very powerful couple where Frankalin Longbottom and his wife were Aurors, well respected but both resigned and went into hiding about the same time as the is not known about who their secret Keeper was as there were no wards whatsoever when they were attacked and it could only happen when the secret keeper releases the secret to all. It is not known why this particular couple along with the potters went to hiding as no explanation was given about why Dark Lord targeted them. Though it is rumored about a prophecy in upper Death Eater circles and some do visit here for the Beauties and drinking loosens their tongues. Too bad you polyjuiced a child, you certainly would have enjoyed."

"Now here are 20,000 galleons, investigate about the cure of Longbottoms and their illness. Why have the mind healers not cured them, The cruciatus can induce temporary insanity when a person shuts himself , but it can be healed or else many of Dark Lords minions would not have survived, although many do have questionable sanity, and I want information within the week. Now take a secrecy oath."

With that settled Harry returned to his normal routine. Cooking breakfast, School, library, practice magic, cooking, practice and sleep.''

Another week went by and Harry returned to the bar. This time he had blonde hair and black eyes with tanned skin. He spoke to the barman- "I seek the fruits of my investment of 20,000"

The Barman nodded and they returned to the room upstairs-"Well?" Harry spoke impatiently.

The barman replied – "the Longbottom are in personal care of Senior Mind Healer Harold Diggle, older brother of Dedalus Diggle and Head of Noble House of Diggle. The younger brother is said to have no sense and ironically the older brother is a mind healer, he personally checked upon the Longbottoms upon Dumbledore's request and due to his seniority none of the younger healers have checked upon them as the man is said to be temperamental and no one wants to provoke him. The two brothers are on good terms with each other and are loyal to Dumbledore. House of Diggle has voted in favor Of Dumbledore since 1960. Here is a copy of records took me 3000 galleons to bribe the ministry and get hold of it. These records were there along with the records of victims of the Lestrange couple among the ministry trial transcripts. The visitor records show that they are visited by their son and Augusta Longbottom every Christmas."

Harry's mind went overdrive, surely the healers could not harm their patients due to oaths taken but the healers had the choice whether to treat, they could deny treating a patient if the patient did not pay for it. If Dumbledore sent the healer the reports could be falsified if Dumbledore falsified them. It was very convenient that both of his godparents were incapacitated and all leads went to Dumbledore. It was classic Dumbledore style of torture. Pretend to care for a person and then destroy them. Voldemort knew of Dumbledore's past with Grindelwald but did not have much proof as his time was spent in search for the child of prophecy. Dumbledore would have made a very sober and sad face then would have said his condolences with a voice full of emotion. As a way to repent he would have requested a favor from the senior mind healer and would have done it for free! Harry's face grew stonier and stonier as each second passed by.

After exiting the pub Harry returned to his cupboard. He had to plot. After about an hour an insane grin lit his face.

**Authors Notes. – Someone said that it seemed that Voldemort was manipulating Harry. Of course he is manipulating Harry. **

**Didn't your parents manipulate you? Don't you manipulate your children?**

**YOU DO**

**Don't parents teach their children that one must not lie. All the while they teach their children to say thank you. They teach children to say thank you WHEN someone helps them in some way. They do not teach their children to say thank you when they feel grateful. OH no! They don't. You apologize if you bumped into someone, you say sorry , but were you really feeling sorry? Most of the Time you were not comes automatically out of one's mouth doesn't it? Almost mechanically one says sorry. At the time you say sorry , you do not mean it , you lie.**

**Believe me if you want to lie , simply think about the way you say sorry all the time for small things And tell the lie . It will be believable!**

**Everyone lies all the time but teaches their children not to lie! WHY? To make their own lives easier. **

**Don't parents force their beliefs upon their children. They show their child the world AS THEY see it. IN short They Manipulate.**

**A politician manipulates his way to the chair which he sits upon. He manipulated his way there.**

**When a child is taught right and wrong they are taught what the teacher believes is right and wrong. He manipulates the child to believe what He thinks is right and wrong. And believe me everyone has different opinion of right and wrong that they believe in according to their experience in life.**

**When Voldemort's soul joined harry, Harry too was desperate. A child would need guidance. Voldemort allowed the future being (HARRY) whom he would be a part of to form his own opinions according to WHAT Voldemort knew and made up a schedule for Harry so that Harry does not act childishly or hastily. IT does not do to give a child a Hand Grenade, teach him how to use it and forbid him to use it. HE WILL USE IT, hence the timetable of knowledge.**

**Voldemort thought what was best for him AND acted accordingly. He knew that all other options led to his destruction and he was selfish, felt abandoned because while he anchored the functioning piece he himself was at risk. Voldemort's soul piece in harry feared destruction as much as the original did hence he chose to become a part of greater being who was neither purely harry nor needed a mentor/guide and Voldemort filled the role, taught and is teaching Harry what he knows with a schedule so that Harry has time for practice and does not get overconfident. A person with knowledge and without practical experience would not do AND a person who had all the knowledge would learn the more FLASHY stuff instead of basics. Had harry retained all knowledge he would have Started practicing advanced curses without practicing control and simpler spells such as levitation.**

**Thank YOU for reading .**

**If you have the time please review.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer – I do not own any fictional character .**

**Legilimens-Chapter 6**

Harry made his way to St. Mungo's and requested an appointment with a junior healer who was appointed in permanent spell damage ward. Fresh out of Hogwarts healers do not have grasp of occulmency, she was perfect person he needed. Disguised again Harry made way to the private meeting chambers that were warded for confidentiality as many clients did not like to be heard. Harry made up a story of his grandmother having odd quirks and was there any way for him to hire the healer to leave her current job and take care of her. Harry already knew he would be refused as the girl would not leave her training that consisted of 3 years to be recognized as a healer. All the while Harry rummaged through the girls memories of Frank and Alice. Harry specifically was looking for behavior patterns of Frank and Alice. The girl after much persuasion on harry' part still refused it so Harry paid her a 100 galleons and made his leave.

Harry made his way to permanent spell damage ward and visited another patient who never had too many visitors under a fake name. Quickly summoning a few hair of both Alice and Frank, harry made his way out towards knock turn alley. Harry entered a small unimpressive shop and dropped a sack of 10,000 galleons. The shop owner raised an eyebrow and stared, Harry stared back. After a minute the owner sighed and opened a hidden door of his shop. This particular person was an expert at forging identities both magical and muggle. He also did questionable jobs; spell work etc if a person himself was unable to do so. Harry made the person sign a binding contract and asked to make two doppelgangers, one of Alice and Frank each. He gave the memory patterns copied from the healer. The doppelgangers were severely limited but they could impersonate 2 insane people easily. Taking the two body doubles Harry made his way to real estate agent and using the forged identity (ministry paperwork was self updating and if paid the right price would bypass scrutiny) he bought a house in a muggle neighborhood. Harry made his way to Gringotts and asked the teller to direct him to warding services. The teller stared at Harry then with a grunt pressed a bell on his desk. Another goblin appeared and showing no amount of disdain asked Harry to follow. Harry followed him to a room on which warding services was return. Harry specified him to add standard lethal and non lethal wards and a fidelius charm tied to Harry himself.

Next Harry went to a ministry and bought a house elf that was trained to take care of sick people. Next harry went to St. Mungo's during lunch time and hit the receptionist with a confundus charm. Harry made way to permanent spell damage ward and opened his trunk to replace Alice with the doppelganger. Harry then used his stone to go unnoticed as the more experienced healers were having lunch. The security was really lax after the war. Harry apparated to his opened his trunk and went inside to see Alice panicking. Harry silently stunned her and laid her to a bed. Harry came out of trunk and apparated along with it to his new house which was yet to be warded. Next he went to the nurse he had hired to give her the address. He only told her where to meet him and not the actual house as when fidelius would be added the address will erase itself for her.

He then returned to his relative's house to resume his schedule and was punished for lateness.

The next day the warders came and put up the wards, the goblins taught humans and humans put up the wards, the only job goblins did was the rune work on wardstones. After the fidelius Harry thanked the warders and added the Tibby the elf and alice to access list. Harry brought Alice out along with the bed as the house was not furnished. Tibby's job was to make food and take care of Alice.

From then on Harry put his studies and practice aside for some time and spent 6 hours a day in Alice's mind slowly treating the damage done. Alice's mind had locked itself to escape the pain all the while shielding Neville as Harry had seen. Harry had to extremely cautious and gentle to coax her mind to interact. Harry sent her pictures of flowers, warm colors to see response and she did respond positively much like a child seeing a new object. Then Harry sent pictures of babies he had seen on calendars and Alice's response was tremendous. No doubt she remembered Neville. It was very exhausting for Harry as the control required concentration

It took Harry three months and many doses of draught of peace that Alice started coming to herself of short period of time. She would panic after a while and lock herself. Tibby was very helpful and Harry made a note in his mental to-do list to do something for welfare of house elves. Alice now recognized Harry and he brought her up to date on events. Alice was enraged to hear what Dumbledore had done to her and her husband. When she was normal she would tell Harry about his mother as they were friends at school.

About a month later Alice started working out to bring her body to shape. That was when subject of Neville and Frank came up again, Harry had requested her to first recover and then to bring her the subject. Harry said that he had decided to bring Frank if he was able to Help Alice. He was scolded because if her doppelganger was caught they would keep an eye on Frank. Harry was ashamed to hear it but still he was not experienced enough and Alice forgave him as she sometimes forgot that Harry was still a child whereas she was an Auror.

For Neville Harry thought a lot and asked whether they knew of prophecy. Alice told that Dumbledore only told them about a prophecy and not its contents. Harry told her about his half but did not tell her about anything more. He suspected that she wanted to ask him but she was grateful to harry and did not ask him as to how Harry was a child with an adult mind. Harry did not wish to disclose that secret. Alice had to restart practicing occulmency that was taught to Auror's and harry helped her with it. Soon they brought Frank with them and Harry started working on Him.

It did not take that much time to heal frank as Harry had advanced much in mind arts and with Alice's help (who was very good with potions) they were able to cure him at least mentally. Being on a bed with not much physical work their bodies were not in best shape.

After much plotting and planning it was decided to wait till Neville's tenth birthday which was about a month away when Neville visited his parents to bring Neville on the fold. Frank and Alice were desperate but understood the need to be discrete. Soon enough Frank, Alice and Harry waited for Neville and His grandmother to arrive. Harry under disguise persuaded the eldest Longbottom to follow him out of Diagon alley under the pretext that he knew someone who could cure her son. She was skeptical but still followed Harry outside leaky cauldron and to an alley. Frank and Alice soon followed. Harry handed everyone the goblin made portkey that came with wards and told them the secret.

The following reunion of family was heartwarming. As Neville was almost in shock for about a minute after which tears flowed on his cheek like rivers. Harry was sad and wished that his parents too could be brought back, but he ruthlessly suppressed such thoughts. He had long ago made peace with the fact that he was an orphan.

After that Harry recounted his story and how he was natural Legilimens. He told them about Dumbledore and the events surrounding that night. How conveniently the child of prophecy was isolated.

Augusta Longbottom although did not like Dumbledore, could not believe it at first.

"Madam Longbottom why were Frank and Alice hiding in a small home when you have your heavily warded ancestral home , because Dumbledore said that fidelius could be cast on a small house and it would go unnoticed but your manor was well known, right?"

At her nod Harry continued-"So even if the death eaters knew of the place they could not have found it, and during war you did not have many visitors if you wanted to hide. Still,why a house in a wizarding village, surely a muggle neighborhood would have been better?"

Harry laughed bitterly and explained- "Dumbledore wanted to find the child of prophecy and control him."

At which he was interrupted by Frank "Then why Didn't Dumbledore wait for a few more years. Surely he had much influence over us and he could have gained significant control over either."

Harry nodded and replied – "Dumbledore probably thinks that only the child of prophecy could kill Voldemort, so he needed a confrontation between the two, if both Neville and I die then Dumbledore thought that Voldemort would become mortal again and prophecy was a fake, Else the child would survive as we only know half of prophecy maybe the rest contained something of value. He also wanted himself to be the sole controller of the child of prophecy and made sure to keep me ignorant of wizarding world; with my magic hating relatives I would have seen him as my rescuer and would have been easily manipulated. "

Neville spoke – "But I cannot be the child of prophecy, I am just above a squib."

At which Harry shook his head. "Neville, the prophecy spoke of a child who had the power to vanquish the dark lord. We both were a year and half old till he came, so till then he had not chosen us, he could have been after you first leaving me. He was just killing both to make sure the job was well done. Prophecies are tricky business and in some other world maybe you are the boy who lived (**Harry reads a lot of fiction)**." At Neville's confused look he continued- "Neville till that night Voldemort had not chosen, It was his choice to kill me first and you second, The prophecy was made without taking Voldemort's choice in account, prophecies are tricky business , manipulative and self fulfilling. They are equivocating as they spoke of a child who had the power to vanquish the dark lord, not of a child who WILL vanquish the dark lord. If Voldemort had ignored the prophecy maybe it would have not come to fulfill. Think, if you ignore a prophecy like suppose you were obliviated after hearing it and no one knows about it then would the prophecy have any effect? No it won't have any effect. SO in a way prophecies just manipulate people to do as expected. But Voldemort did come after me and did lose so I do have the potential, but that does not mean he could not come after you! You too have the potential. We need to check you for blocks on magic"

At this point Alice jumped and started casting diagnostic charms on Neville while explaining- "Neville, you were showing accidental magic so we had to bind it. I am sorry Neville but it is a block many parents perform and it removes itself at 11."

Soon as she received results she started frowning and turned towards Augusta – "did you put further blocks on Neville?" at her refusal Harry piped up – "Dumbledore?"

"Was Neville alone with Dumbledore for more than an hour?"

At this Augusta replied – "Yes after the attack since Neville was not harmed he was taken to Hogwarts by Dumbledore so that I could stay with Alice and Frank at St. Mungo's. The order came to rescue to find the door blown and Dumbledore subdued Bellatrix and her husband personally. He took Neville to Hogwarts and arranged healers at St. Mungo's. I later retrieved him from Hogwarts."

They shared a glance and Frank started cursing. Neville was still not over the shock that his parents were alive and he was not a near squib.

Harry spoke out – "It seems that he blocked Neville to make sure that only one fit the criteria of child of prophecy and Neville was controllable. He also did not permanently incapacitate you so that if in case I die he would have found a miracle cure to undo the damage and Neville would have fallen further in his manipulations. He would have said – "it seems my boy that the burden of prophecy has fallen upon you and to ease your burden I researched with some old friends and finally found a cure, with your parents with you , you will find it easier to fight Voldemort and bring those who did your family wrong to justice" , he would have tried to make you fight for revenge."

They arranged to remove the block the next day and Harry offered the ritual chamber in the Trunk for the next day. Neville stayed all night with his parents while Harry returned to the Dursley's.

The next day a plan was finalized made after much plotting; the return of Longbottoms from insanity was kept a secret. The blocks were removed from Neville and he started learning a year early. The Longbottoms stayed in the fidelius house which was now better furnished courtesy of Augusta. It was decided so that the secret was not out before planned. Frank and Alice being purebloods learnt about Muggle world.

Neville Longbottom was a shy and insecure child who was always told that he did not measure up to his parents, specially his father. He always felt guilty that they lost their sanity while protecting him. Maybe if he was not present they would have fought their way out instead of trying to protect him. Now he knew that they would have been back if Dumbledore had not meddled. He did not blame Harry and he had seen harry blaming himself as Dumbledore would not have done anything if Alice was not his godmother. But Neville knew that if he was chosen he would have lost his parents, At least this way he got them back. He had seen Harry looking longingly at Alice and knew Harry felt a bit jealous. He would talk to his mother tomorrow. Harry had gained his eternal support and he would stand behind Harry no matter what.

Augusta Longbottom was happy, happier than she had been for better part of the decade. She had her children back. Now Neville will have his parents for the rest of his childhood or what is left of it. She was suspicious of Harry Potter. His resources did not fit well. How did he know so much .how did he create fake doppelgangers. How did he achieve all this! Harry was keeping secrets and she could respect that. She would watch for now and maybe act more cautious.

Alice Longbottom felt betrayed by Dumbledore and even by Augusta. She did not raise Neville as she should have. Neville was insecure and shy. She had a lot of work ahead. She could not understand how to treat Harry. He was not even eleven but was more mature than 15 year olds. Sure he did make mistake of rescuing only one, but he was a child and she was grateful to him for curing her. It should have been the other way round. She should be the one to look after him, but till now he was the one looking after her. Harry had slowly and gently interacted with her mind and he had worked six hours a day to help her in those sessions. He would patiently tell her facts, show her pictures and talk to her. He was a little charmer, but was patient when her memory lapsed and would repeat all he had told her. He brought her the draught of peace without which she would have panicked. He had healed her mind without being a healer but she suspected that Harry had probed many people's mind as he was very proficient with it. His skill in mind arts surpassed the best of the Auror Academy instructors and obliviators. Back in her training days she remembered that they were taught occulmency and their shields were tested. Harry put their attacks to shame. His attacks were gentle yet somehow he managed to bypass her defenses. But harry did no invade her memories, He only tested her defenses and left at that.

Frank Longbottom was feeling many emotions. He was happy to see his family together and intact, back in the days of war they were targeted and they were losing. They did not have much hope of winning the war, and even less of seeing their family alive and whole after the war. He had joined the aurors only to fight the war, his family had businesses and like most old families he would have spent the rest of his life watching his businesses and growing his family fortune. Now 10 years later they were together again. He had his family back. His son was alive for whom they worried about most as he was Voldemorts personal target. He owed too much to harry, who had come and helped them. Harry kept his secrets and how he was so knowledgeable when Dumbledore had done his most to ensure he was kept in dark. But Frank knew better than ask, he was not going to pester Harry and if harry wished to tell them he would be glad to know. Harry had not harmed them and they were the ones to look after him, rather he had looked after them, he had a mastery of mind arts that most people could only dream about. Harry was cunning as he had successfully kidnapped two people from a hospital without anyone being wiser. He would work hard and make sure his family in which he included Harry was not manipulated anymore. He had learnt it the hard way to never trust a person absolutely. He had trusted Dumbledore only to pay the price. Harry had a plan which after input from him and Alice looked to be a good one. That would ensure that Dumbledore was off their backs for a few years to come.

**Next - diagon alley.**

**Also, **In first book , Dumbledore added Devil's snare as a trap , it was targeted for neville, Dumbledore expected neville to tag along Harry and co. So that he could mould neville too. When Nevile did not appear , He let him slide away from further control as till then he had confirmed the identity of chosen one as undisputed.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer – I do not own any fictional character.**

**Legilimens-Chapter 7**

_**THE-BOY-WHO-LIVED Enters The Wizarding World**_

_Yesterday was a normal day at Diagon Alley until Mr. Rubeus Hagrid, gamekeeper at Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry appeared at leaky cauldron along with our boy-savior, Harry Potter. Walking along Mr. Hagrid it appeared that Mr. Potter was in a deep conversation with Mr. Hagrid and it appeared to be a start of good friendship. Mr. Potter was asking some questions until someone recognized him and Mr. Potter was mobbed by the patrons present. This reporter himself was having breakfast until shouts of welcome back Harry Potter reached him. As a good reporter he could not miss his chance to try interview Mr. Potter on his first public appearance. The duo was walking towards gringotts when Mr. Potter said he did not have any money. This made me stop dead in my tracks as the potter family is considered one of the wealthier families in Britain. The next question asked was even more startling, in his own words- "Hagrid, Why were the people there seemed to know me? Why am I famous?" Mr. Hagrid then tried to explain the events that led to defeat of the Dark Lord. It appeared that before today Mr. Potter did not have any knowledge of his heritage and existence of magic! Then Mr. Potter after some thought and hesitation fired another question – "If I am so famous Hagrid, then why did no magical family take me in, why was I left with muggle family that hates me and I am not treated well?" Mr. Hagrid's reply was even more startling, He said that Albus Dumbledore placed him there and he must have good reasons. This reporter asks as to why the Supreme Mugwump felt the need to interfere in a matter that needs to be handled by child services. All Half-blood and Pure blood children if living with muggles are notified of the magical world and their heritage at the age of 8, why was the rule not followed? It bore further investigation and I decided to ask some question directly from Mr. Potter who was very hesitant to answer at first but reluctantly agreed to._

"_Mr. Potter is it true that you did not know the existence of magic before today?"_

"_No ma'am I did not know until yesterday when Hagrid arrived with my Hogwarts letter."_

"_Was a letter not sent to you with an owl?"_

"_It was but my relatives did not allow me to read it, they burned those letters."_

"_But your aunt knew of existence of magic, did she not?"_

"_She did but I was never told"_

"_Did no wizarding authority arrive for inspection of your living conditions?"_

"_No ma'am I was not visited by anyone from wizarding world before yesterday." It was a scandal as all the children in wizarding world hear stories of Harry Potter, and Mr. Potter himself knew nothing about it._

"_How was your life living with muggles?"_

"_It was good, I like school and friends there, but my family never talked much to me. I have top grades and I am proud of them. I can't wait to learn magic!"_

"_What is your opinion on wizarding world, Mr. Potter?"_

"_I do not know what to say, magic seems wonderful to someone who has not seen it except when I once turned my teachers hair blue. But I still do not know as to why I was not told about magic if I am so well known. People know more about my parents then I do! You say that I defeated a dark wizard but I do not even remember doing something like this, if I try to think I just remember a green light and nothing more. I have yet to form an opinion about anything and I think I have a lot to learn before I form my opinion about the wizarding world as whole."_

"_Thank you Mr. Potter and good luck, Congratulations on your entrance to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry."_

_So here was the first interview ever given by Mr. Potter and it carried some startling revelations that bear further investigation by authorities. It also appeared that Mr. Potters muggle family did not wish him to go to Hogwarts and went as far as to burn the letters sent to him. We at Daily Prophet wish our best to our young boy savior._

Harry sat on the table where Tibby was serving breakfast, reading the newspaper where he made the headlines. It was his move to tip off a reporter anonymously about Harry Potter's entrance to wizarding world. Harry received his vault keys and after seeing the key, with no small amount of disdain the goblin led him to his own vault. Harry filled a few moneybags not battling an eyelash to hagrids protests. Harry bought his wand after trying about all wands available, a Griffin feather rosewood wand which he fell in love with. His other wand was good but it was not as good as a match. Harry bought a 4 compartment trunk with best available protection and four times the amount of potions ingredients required, he figured with Severus Snape teaching, he might not have free access for supplies from school. He already had many potions in statis. Harry also had Tom's old school books that tom had somehow left with other precious tomes he had acquired. It seemed Tom had some sentimental attachment towards his school books. Who would think that the young Dark Lord would be a bookworm, now come to think about it Tom might have had pimples for all Harry knew! These thoughts were best left alone. Speaking of books Harry bought various reference books for all subject including History, He outright laughed at the books written on mind magics available to common public. Had he not known better he would have started building shields in mind. It was laughable. Occulmency meant one had to shield his mind from magical attacks that stole away the magical residue created by a probe, much like a muggle camera , you throw light and capture the reflected. One could build shields, but they were then dependent upon imagination and a Legilimens could simply convince himself that it did not exist or project emotions to weaken the state. The best way was to suffuse the mind and repel magical attacks with magic. Let the other person's magic be cancelled or send false images by detecting and redirecting the probe. One could even open a backdoor as Harry discovered with Alice when she tested his occulmency and Harry instead somehow broke in her mind while she was distracted with Harry's memories that he was projecting.

Harry also acquired an owl for himself and named it Hedwig. She was a white beauty as Harry called her in his mind and seemed to very intelligent. Harry suspected that he may have acquired a true familiar. He would have to wait and see if their bond developed further than of a human and his owl and Hedgwig acquired some magical gifts.

Meanwhile Augusta Longbottom was in process of filing discharge papers for the Longbottoms and Mr. Diggle had mysteriously disappeared on one of his rounds at St. Mungo's. Nobody found him missing as he did not operate anyone who was not screened by juniors and hence he had relatively less workload and only the more complicated cases were handled by him. It was all the perks of being the senior most healers. Dumbledore would know hours later that while Diggle was knocked out because he slipped in one of the staircases (which were suddenly under a silencing charm) the Longbottoms were on their way to France for alternate treatment by a mysterious healer from somewhere east who only took some cases if he saw fit.

Harry was meanwhile buying clothes all of the highest quality without the Potter crest as according to the world he did not know about his heritage. Harry and Hagrid had left without buying clothes as he did not want Dumbledore to know if he knew about acromantula silk and he did not trust Dumbledore to watch all his shopping to know more about him. Hopefully the questions now asked to Dumbledore would keep him off radar. Harry also bought skin tight Dragonhide armor and a necklace that many wore which would check for active enchantments that could be considered harmful. Like potions in food, cursed objects etc. It was blood bound and invisible to all, bought from nockturn alley, along with the vanishing cabinet that Tom could never figure out how it worked. Tom had once sent a rat with tracking charms and he never could find out where the rat went. But harry figured if the rat could go, meant it was sent somewhere probably unplottable as the rat was alive when Tom performed the experiment. But Tom in his fascination of other dark artifacts never pursued the matter further. Harry had a long list of projects which he wanted to finish. Currently he was fascinated by muggle computers and what they called programming languages. It was very similar to runes, but it was not advanced enough as runes but was more organised. Muggles had ways of using these languages that wizards did not. All the calculations done by wizards was done by hand, there simply wasn't any concept of calculator. Harry wanted to correct that, but for that he needed to learn more of the core branches of magic. He had his aims such as in first year he wanted to reach atleast 5th year in transfiguration and in Tom's time it would have been 3rd year. The education level was going down and Harry would not drown himself with a sinking ship. BY giving the interview Harry had painted a target upon himself so that he was portrayed as an ignorant person and everyone would love to have their hands on him , this also changed peoples view that approaching Harry was a lost cause because he was Dumbledore's lapdog.

Soon the day for boarding the train with ridiculously red colored engine came up. Harry did not bother with his relatives and simply shrinking all his possessions' apparated near King Cross station, honestly what were they smoking when they made this platform, why on a muggle place, if any muggle-ignorant wizards did visit the muggles will notice them, they were a sore thumb amongst muggles, not to mention owls and those damned frogs that people carry. Honestly Toads, who in their right mind would like to carry a toad of all things. Simply useless things go to Hogwarts and throw those toads in lake and forget about them. Why couldn't they arrange portkeys which were a much impressive way to travel and would impress the superiority of magic upon muggleborns instead of a Steam engine which although was faster than any muggle train still did not convince anyone who knew of muggle world. Even if they wanted a train ride why not make a separate platform away from muggle station, understanding wizards sometimes was simply impossible.

Harry made his way to the division where a group of red heads was rushing to, according to their clothes they were definitely purebloods, but then what was a group of purebloods doing on the muggle side of platform? And the obnoxious woman was shouting out the platform number and asking her children to remind her of it. Really! The floo address was platform 9 ¾ and looking at her children there were enough of them to get your eyes bleed just by looking at them. Harry just on instinct tried a legilimency scan on the woman and found she was looking for him! But how did she know that Hagrid never told him about the platform number. He did not need to guess this one. And the girl accompanying was dreaming of a fairytale meeting with him where when he met her red and white roses would fall from sky. That made Harry sick, quickly activating his notice me not pebble he simply passed the group of red heads of which a pair of twins and a spectacled boy had already left. Harry did not take much time to find a compartment but he soon find a few more people lurking around who seemed to be looking for someone. Deciding that whoever came looking for him would not be on guard he just sat down and started reading a book on transfiguration, a subject on which tom did not pay much attention. Sure he did get good grades but those could be attained by simply performing spells, not mastering them and Harry had a one sided competition with Tom on achievements. Neville and Harry had decided to "introduce" themselves to each other in front of others so Neville would come looking for him during the train ride. Soon enough a pink haired girl came looking for him if her darting eyes were any indication. A subtle scan showed she was looking for Harry and was nervous meeting him; she also had some knowledge of occulmency. She seemed to be a second year or a third year and was she remembered a bit about HIM! As a toddler Harry had met this girl and those memories were in front of her mind. A little blurry as they were they were of harry and this girl when harry looked to be about 1 year old. Harry was intrigued as his parents were supposed to be in hiding and yet they either visited or were visited by this girl's parent. The girl opened the door and-

"May I sit here?"

"Sure, I don't mind"

"I'm Tonks" the girl said expectantly and was somewhat hesitant to tell her full name. Harry smirked

-"Hello Tonks; I'm Potter, why don't you tell me your full name?" Tonks hair cycled colors and set to a red and replied haughtily (which harry knew was a façade) "It's not important, just call me Tonks." Harry could not let this opportunity go. "O.k. then I guess we would not be able to become friends and I won't tell you my name is Harry Potter." Harry grinned. Now Tonks was in a fix, if she had to call Harry as Potter then any way to gain friendship. "Fine, my name is Nymphadora Tonks, but you may only call me Tonks or else.."

"Else?" Harry asked expectantly. For some reason she was to gain Harry's friendship and it seemed to be important to her. Harry could not yet figure out why and he did not dare go deeper in her mind if he might get detected. Tonks did not answer it so Harry hedged on

"Ok how about Nymmy if we become friends eh Tonks?" Harry grinned it was so much fun!

They were disturbed as one of the redheads from the redhead brood opened the compartment door and said/demaned/stated "Do you mind if I sit here, everywhere else is full." Without waiting for a reply he just settled his trunk and stated, "Hello, I'm Ron Weasely"

"Hello, I'm Harry Potter and this lovely lady here is N "Tonks glared and Harry corrected himself – "Tonks"

The redhead openly stared trying to look at the scar which Harry maintained with the help of his metamorph ability. He expected Harry to showcase it to him, "how creepy" Harry Harry did not seem interested to show it to him he finally broke the silence-

"Do you have the scar?" Tonks look scandalized at the lack of tact, while Harry answered – "Stop gawking will you Weasely and stop staring, I do not like boys that way, It's creepy!"

Tonks burst out laughing at Weasley's expense whose face had gone as red as his hair.

The compartment was silent and Harry resumed his reading which was sadly interrupted again by a Blonde boy who looked as if he owned the place.

"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"." Malfoys and their flair of dramatics, Harry thought as he rolled his eyes. Lucius sure bred a clone for himself Harry thought amusedly. "Yes," said Harry. He was looking at the other boys. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing on either side of the pale boy, they looked like bodyguards. And he brings a pair of bodyguards to boot! Definitely comes to impress, poor boy Tom had played these games and forgot them for better ones. Seeing that Harry was eyeing his little bodyguards Malfoy spoke further-

"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle, and my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him. "Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."

He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

"Sure you can Draco, may I call you Draco?" at his nod he continued "But I want to find out on my own, surely you understand that due to my new found fame people will try to influence me, so I will try to form my own opinion and friends. That's why it's too early to call someone friend, but I assure you that I am not out to make any enemies either, this world is rather new to me and I will like to explore it a bit further. If I accept your help now, how can I trust you to introduce me to right sort of people?" Seeing this Draco nodded, it was a very Slytherin response after all, cautious, well thought, and downright oily. But his father did say it would be beneficial to get Potter as an ally and things could have gone worse. Seeing Potters attitude it became rather necessary to not make an enemy out of him. "Well I will see you at sorting I guess, I hope you are in Slytherin."

At this Ron interrupted - "Harry Potter in Slytherin! He is not a slimy snake." At this point Harry intervened- "Shut up Weasely no one asked for your opinion, it is not up to you to decide where I will be, as far as I know it is not up to us to decide where we will be sorted. And all houses have their positives. Slytherin is cunning and ambitious, Hufflepuff is hard working and loyal, Gryffindor is brave, and Ravenclaws are seekers of knowledge. Let the hat decide where I will be. Personally I prefer not to go for one single house as all qualities are rather tempting to have in a person. For now let's not worry about it. And it would be better if you do not interrupt rudely in other people's business."

Weasley flushed red and blurted – "How can you say that I am you best mate."

Nymphadora snorted and Harry looked incredulously at Ron – "since when are you my "best mate" we just met a few minutes ago? I think you just wanted to be friends with me because of my fame weren't you Weasley. That's why you just came barging in and sat down saying everywhere else is full."

If possible Weasley turned even redder and shouted – "FINE if you don't want me to sit with you, I was just trying to help you by being your best friend, if you do not want me to sit here just say so." Weasley promptly walked out of compartment.

"Well, so nice of him to remove himself from our presence" said Draco dryly. Well I will see you around Potter. Nodding he left as well.

The rest of the train ride went in comfortable silence but Harry could see that Tonks was trying to start up a conversation but was failing. She kept fidgeting and Harry did not dare to try read further than surface thoughts in case he was detected and only he was around to take the blame.

_The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. Harry shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry heard a familiar voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?" _

_Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads. _

_"__C'mon, follow me — any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!" _

_Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much._

_"__Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here." _

_There was a loud "Oooooh!" _ Hogwarts look even more magnificent than he remembered.

_The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. _

_"__No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore_

Harry sat down in a boat with 3 people already sitting in it, one was a girl with red hair, another one had black hair and both seemed to be friends. There was a boy who looked to be muggleborn judging by the looks he was giving to everything such as self rowing boat, clearly unaccustomed to magic.

_"__Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then — FORWARD!" _

_And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood. _

_"__Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; _

Harry saw the Weasley boy in another boat and was glaring at harry; upon noticing that Harry had noticed he looked away. Suppressing a malicious grin Harry wandlessly helped Weasley get off the boat at the middle of the lake. Honestly Harry was just helping Weasley show his Gryffindor bravery by a firsthand demonstration of jumping from the boat. Surely jumping in the black lake at night was brave. A tentacle rose from lake lifting Weasley and trying to put him back on lake, but trying was the operating word as when harry saw it he wandlessly helped Weasley off the tentacle too, really this time he helped because Weasley was thrashing. This would embarrass Weasley enough for trying to manipulate Harry.

Harry briefly wondered how Hedwig was finding the place as she had departed from him before the train station. Probably at a perch in owlery reject some owl trying to woo her Harry mused. Hedwig was as vain as she was intelligent.

Soon enough they were climbing out of the boat and Hagrid Knocked the gate thrice with his massive fist.

**Next- Sorting (for those who did not know ****)**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer – I do not own any fictional character.**

**Legilimens-Chapter 8**

A stern faced teacher who introduced herself as Deputy Headmistress, Minerva McGonagall. Someone Harry made a note to avoid at all costs. She had good mental shields and did not linger much, but he did detect a second conscious, an animal one that was subdued. He surmised she was an animagus, and instantly received some information about her being a cat animagus, furthering his need to avoid her. A girl with bushy hair was speaking non-stop about what she read about Hogwarts, making others near her look uncomfortable. Someone needed to teach her about keeping things to herself. Weasely was shivering and soaked in water. Somehow McGonagall missed it and now he would be sorted all wet thought Harry amused. Neville was further along chatting with a red haired girl he did not know about. Feeling Harry's eyes on him Neville waved and resumed his chatting; Looked like someone had a crush. Harry had already decided the house he would be in and hopefully he would be able to coerce the hat to place him accordingly, Boy! It would definitely cause mayhem. He hoped to catch people off guard and avoid Dumbledore's little red haired minions, not that it would take much time for Dumbles to plant minions in other houses, that being said if he already did not have any. Harry had great respect for Dumbledore; he was like a Politician, a Scientist, a Warrior, and a Teacher, all packed in one, a jack of all trades if you will. Not to mention he was a master at Alchemy, Transfiguration and Battle Magics, Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump and Headmaster of Hogwarts and many more things that were not mentioned. Behind his Grandfatherly act was a man who achieved what he desired, there was no place for failure. Yet Harry felt rather excited to go against him, to ruin his plans to bring that man down and build himself on his ruins. It was ambitious and something that had not been done, many had tried and failed, Tom being one of them.

Soon enough the Ghosts drifted inside the - "firstie containment chamber"; seemingly not noticing the frightened first years. It was one of their yearly activities of entertainment, spooking the first years, since no one ever was spooked by them other than first years. No one paid attention to them either, Tom had recognized the mistakes made by wizards and learnt a lot from ghosts. Just show them some attention, talk to them a bit and hundreds of years of knowledge could be gained, lost knowledge, secrets and what not. The ghosts were good lookouts too if you could bribe them. They were undetected; not that anyone paid them attention, but could easily eavesdrop on important conversations. Tom had used their services to avoid ambushes set up by some pureblood princes that did not like being upstaged by a mudblood second year.

The ghosts soon left them alone, having had their fun and the door towards the great hall was opened. What a cruel way, first spooking the first years then exposing them to the whole school.

Ah!, the great moment of doom had finally arrived, now he would be confronting old Dumbles, well not confronting, more like seeing him in person after about 9 ½ years. Old bastard sure f**ed up his life; Harry would make sure he paid for it. There sat the twinkle eyed tyrant with his ever annoying condescending smile that made everyone feel inferior and yet never made it seem like it was on purpose. Soon enough Harry could feel his eyes on him, and Harry suddenly felt nervous, he knew that in a straight out fight Dumbledore would wipe him out in straight five seconds; hell those five seconds would be those in which he decides exactly what he wanted to do. In hindsight Harry thought it was a good thing that he was nervous, helps when you want to appear normal. The other firsties were nervous due to their sorting; he was nervous due to a different reason.

Dumbledore all the while watched as the first years lined up and entered the great hall, he sought out the people of interest, he may not be Slughorn but he sure knew how to manip..Err… motivate little children to side with the LIGhT. After all it was his job to ensure that his little followers-to-be were shown the right path. Children were the future after all and it was a good thing that he got his paws...errr…hands on them. A little smile there, a gentle reprimand there, sometimes blatant ignorance to some mistakes made by students brought them firmly in his grasp. They were so awed by his mere presence that many higher brain functions simply shut down. They never knew how he knew things that he ought not to know about, yet sometimes he helped them escape, with very little punishment.

These small favors then added up to make up big debts, debts he made sure to collect later sometime. But this year was different, this year a first year of special interest, had arrived at Hogwarts. He peered at all the first years that were too awed by the decorations of the great hall and had yet to notice the staff table all of whom were watching the new students with interest. But the one he was most interested in was there with an air of confidence that he wasn't sure he like much. Harry Potter was there looking healthy as one must be, this was not as good as he hoped, the child was not malnourished, he looked charismatic even as an eleven year old. Was it slight shade of red in his hair?, but suddenly his demeanor changed slightly he too looked nervous, and it made Albus smile, nothing too out of ordinary, maybe he was having a rebellious streak and early puberty, his relatives may not be that strict with him perhaps but their job was to make sure to keep Harry ignorant and guide him to hate the muggle world. It would make sure that Harry found his only friends in magical world and was ready to die for them and did not run away to muggle world. Albus had no doubt that if Harry Potter chose to run away there won't be a way for him to track him easily. Harry needed to be taught magic, he needed to come to Hogwarts and he needed Albus Dumbledore to guide him towards his destiny. The Weasely boy by now must have made sure along with Hagrid that Harry knew to be in Gryffindor, where he would befriend Weasely, later visits to their home at summer would be good way to make him feel loved and a part of family. Molly was not someone evil but she needed money, money for education of children which her family could not afford, but he being the Headmaster waived their fees off. Sure they could be sent to other schools in the Isles but like all parents, she wanted the best for her children. The twins had enraged the old Hag Muriel who was going to pay for their tuition fee further trapping the Weasley's in his net of debts. He had long ago recognized that debt in money was something people either did not pay or paid in money, but he being the kind hearted good man he was never set up a contract for money, never asked for it either, he merely offered a place for the children at Hogwarts. Now they would sometime run minor errands for him and would feel honored to do so. He gave them the honor of introducing Harry Potter to the light, something Molly saw no wrong in. He merely spun a tale of Hagrid forgetting to mention the way to 9 ¾ and asked Molly to guide Harry to platform and be subtle about it. Their son Ronald was an idiot, but not idiotic enough to miss the opportunity of becoming Harry Potters first friend. He did not need legilimency to see the plans forming in his head when he knew that Harry Potter was living with muggles and was going to meet them at station. A small touch of legilimency while bidding him goodbye and looking forward to see him at Hogwarts next year, he quickly ironed out the details in the boy's impressionable mind, although he admitted the original plan wasn't half bad either.

With a nod to Minerva he signaled the start of sorting.

Harry watched with interest the staff that had changed completely since Tom was student. Only Dumbles remained, he could see some gears turning in Dumbles head, or maybe not; old Dumbles was too difficult to read that easily

He almost did not pay attention to the sorting of the red head girl's friend Neville was chatting with. Bones, yeah that's what her name was, really what was next? She would be marrying LONGBOTTOM, Harry snickered, yeah they would name their child as "femur", weird name all these people have, he thanked heavens he did not have a weird name.

So lost was he in his musing that he almost missed the glances Tonks was giving him, feeling her eyes on him he smiled and waved, Tonks turned nearly as pink as her hair which was saying something and her Hufflepuff friends were eyeing her curiously.

Soon enough Granger, "the girl with little common sense, who lacked social skills" was called and surprisingly turned out to be Gryffindor, he did not know how it happened, it had to be a mistake the girl was Ravenclaw material; she was typical Ravenclaw stereotype of a bookworm who lived under a rock. Oh well, not that it mattered now.

Some sorting later it was "Bad-Faith's" turn to be sorted and it seemed that he was sorted without touching the hat. Neville had previously been sorted to Gryffindor, he wanted Hufflepuff but it seemed that his grandmother's glare was enough to change his mind.

Soon enough it was Harry's own turn to be sorted and amongst the whisperings and mutterings, basking in the looks of awe, a few glares and some smiles he marched forward and the hat was put upon his head.

"_Well hello Mister Potter or should I say Mister Riddle."_

"_Cut the crap Adrien, you know as well as I do that it is neither, for all purpose I am Harry Potter for the world. Not the old Harry Potter that was born, neither am I possessed, I am a "We" that you now know since I have let you enter my mind."_

"_Then shall I call you Riddle-Potter?" the hat asked amused._

"_If it helps you entertain yourself for another year, do as you like although you need not be explained to keep things to yourself. by the way if I was replaced by Neville , would you call him RiddleBottom, or maybe RiddlesBottom, hmm?" the hat and the boy shared a silent laugh._

"_That I understand Mister Potter, I do indeed. Young Thomas once tried to read my memories in search for knowledge and family secrets. He never did succeed, although it left him frustrated, one of the few things he set his mind about and failed. "_

"_Did he? I do not know all his life as you now know; no doubt you snooped in the sealed memories too, did you not."_

"_that I did, a smart hat such as myself needs to do something since ungrateful children such as yourself do not value me and I am left to rot, hearing Old coots, devising evil little plots and their flaming turkeys singing them to sleep. Now where do I sort you Mister Potter, you have great ambition to mold the world in your design, you are courageous enough to execute the most insane plans, you thirst for knowledge, although you strive to apply it and not collect it, yet you thirst for it after all. And you do not fear hard work, as long as it is interesting you do it yourself. Not to mention you are perhaps the most accomplished person in mind arts, better than Rowena and Salazaar at thrice your age. You are loyal but selectively to those who you want to be friends with, yet you do not want friends for merely friendship, you could care less for those that do not interest you or are not a part of your plans. But still you are a mother hen; those who are in your schemes are considered your responsibility. Any founder would have been proud to have you."_

"_Again cut the crap stupid hat, you know where I want to go and sort me accordingly. We have taken more time than others."_

"_Very well Mister Potter if you wish so who am I to deny. Better be-"_

"_**HUFFLEPUFF**__"_

Smiling Harry took off the hat and made his way to dumbstruck table clad in yellow and black. They had not made a sound until he approached them. Poor puffs never got enough glory, now Harry Potter himself graces them with his presence. Suddenly applause erupted from the house of badgers; they got "The Harry Potter" after all. Who would have thought that Harry Potter would be a Hufflepuff, the house of Nobodies? Yet here Harry Potter sat amongst them, perhaps they would be more appreciated now that they had someone who would bring them to spotlight. No one ever thought that Harry Potter would go to any house other than Gryffindor. The Gryffindors were stunned, Harry Potter had betrayed them, and after years of anticipation he emerges to the magical world from hiding only to join the house of losers. Maybe he was not so special after all; well they did not care much about it. He went to house of losers and that was all that mattered. The Slytherins were surprised, they did not expect Potter to join them, it would have been suicide when half of the members of their house had some family member imprisoned or atleast tried for being associated with the Dark Lord. Many had lost a lot of money, many pureblood families had invested in the dark lord, if not outright join him. They all lost a good amount of money, not to mention the bribes they had to give to erase their involvement. But Potter not being a Gryffindor would bear watching, maybe he was a Slytherin who was not sent by hat to Slytherin, it mattered little to those who were neutral to politics, but those who were all for pureblood supremacy soon made plans to watch him carefully, maybe he could be a leader they needed, even if he lived with muggles, his interview did hint towards a little dislike of muggles. Many upper years that did not care about blood but were afraid to voice opinions held hope, maybe Potter would be the leader to end all prejudice. The Slytherins did not like being discriminated, who did? How could eleven year old children be considered evil? They were taught either to keep their opinions to themselves or that they were superior. Many understood later when their understanding expanded that it was not so. But till then they were already alienated.

The house of claws tried to read Harry Potter who was smiling and looking around, he reminded them of Dumbledore. But what was Harry Potter doing with the Puffs? Rumors were that Harry Potter was taught advanced magic, though they doubted it after the interview, they still thought he would know at least up to second year material and hence he would either be a Gryffindor or maybe due to his knowledge a Ravenclaw. It was still speculated that he was taught in advance and was merely saying he lived with muggles.

While all these thoughts ran, Harry was rapidly scanning people from each table, those he could read the surface thoughts of, and memorized the faces that could come to use later.

Meanwhile at the Staff table, Albus Dumbledore behind the benign smile was frowning, the Potter boy should have gone to Gryffindor, where he would have been easier to control. Having a Weasley as a friend would have furthered his influence. No matter, he would have to arrange someone in the house to guide Harry. There was one Nymphadora whose father he had aided to get a job. Although he was the sharper one of the Tonks couple his wife being pureblood worked as solicitor and he was her assistant. But they were solicitors and would see through his manipulations. Harry did not know about his wealth and he was sure if he knows it later when he was set on the right path he would use it for the greater good.

Then there was Bones in same year as him, that was not good, the girl would contact her aunt Amelia Bones, who being a politician same as him could use Harry to her own ends. She could get dirt on him; perhaps it was time to arrange an accident for Amelia Bones. If the girl was harmed she would have his hide, and the girl had a good chance of getting hurt since Albus had set up plans that involved Harry confronting Tom.

The only option remained the Macmillan boy, but the boy was not smart enough to be the second best, he would try to assert dominance on Harry, which was not something he required in a proper hero. Ronald had fit the role. Maybe Ronald would join Hufflepuff, but the Hat was stubborn and very strong to be manipulated; not that he did not try, but he could not damage a founder's artifact while he was the headmaster and the hat was in his care. Oh, how he would have loved to burn the obnoxious hat.

Soon enough the Sorting was resumed, but McGonagall looked like she had swallowed a live fly, Snape was frowning, Flitwick remained neutral and Sprout was absolutely delighted. Surprise and delight evident on her motherly face.

After Zabini was sorted to Slytherin the HeadBastard stood up, arms open wide as if nothing could have pleased him more. "Yeah right! More brains to corrupt, more subjects to spread his influence upon was more like the reason Dumbles was pleased about." thought Harry.

_"__Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!_

_"__Thank you!"_

In a sweeping gesture from the headmaster the plates were filled with food, many first years looked up to him with awe. Some upper years too were awed with the "Wandless Magic" shown by headmaster. It was merely showmanship by him and the food could not be conjured, those who had not read the laws were awed by him. Later they would realize that it was not conjured, but most would forget about it, yet the feelings of awe do not go away. Dumbledore had with a small gesture started sowing seeds in their minds. He had started cementing his place in young impressionable minds.

This was difference that Tom never could bridge between himself and Dumbes, Tom was considered a prodigy but Dumbledore had by then cemented his position of a Divine entity.

Sensing Nymphadora eyeing him he waved at her, many of her peers soon started questioning her about knowing Harry Potter. Harry had yet to discern her motives, but her antics amused him and he did not feel any bad vibes from her. Sure she had some hidden agenda, but then again who did not? Most people he would be friends with would first try to be friends with him because of his fame. Still his parents trusted her parents since he did see himself in her memories, just flashes of it that she remembered.

At other end of table the Fat Friar was chatting with some upper years. He would have to somehow gain his trust. Ghosts were useful, somehow Tom knew the Ravenclaw ghost but he had yet to gain those memories, and somehow those memories did not come to him even if he thought about it. He had yet to encounter something else about which Tom knew and yet he did not get the information. Tom had locked those memories away, why he did not know, but he knew that there was a good reason. He knew that Tom did not have any bad intent, for all sense and purpose they were now one, He was not completely Harry, and neither was he Tom.

IF those memories were hidden, they were better that way.

He glanced sideways and the redhead girl blushed, being caught watching him. He introduced himself to his fellow first years, and soon conversation started. He had recited and practiced a lot of lines, his background story that Dumbledore created of being raised by muggles, being ignorant. If he played his cards right, those around him would take it unto themselves to get him acquainted to magical world and he would soon drop the mask of ignorance. Macmillan was reciting the story of THE-BOY-WHO-LIVED to Justin Finch-Fletchley who was now looking at Harry in wonder. Some older years were eyeing him as if measuring him up. A fourth year name Cedric Diggory introduced himself to him and other first years.

Soon enough the feast was over and Dumbledore after a not so subtle hint of something being hidden in the third floor corridor, and a horrendous song that Dumbledore called music, bid them goodbye.

Harry wondered whether Dumbledore amused himself by making others sing the song and then appreciated it in front of others. Maybe it was due to the fact that no one contradicted him about the song being lame; he got some silly pleasure that he was challenging others – "LOOK I CAN MAKE YOU ALL EMBARRASS YOURSELVES AND YOU CANNOT DO A THING TO STOP ME".

It was eerily similar to Vernons boss who loved to crack lame jokes and Vernon had to laugh along with him all the while groaning inside. The boss obviously knew that those jokes were not funny but was rather amused because people had to laugh at them, so as not to anger him. In short he enjoyed having power upon others. It was like- " I am Dumbledore, I will do as I want."

Maybe if someone did object about the song, he would go all TWINKLE EYED and say – "MY boy not tolerating others is the first sign of darkness." although twinkling eyes, horribly colored clothes with stars and moons along with half moon spectacles and inconveniently long beard were the first sign of darkness in Harry's opinion.

What better way to appear innocent than to act like a fool and a stereotyped genius with huge number of eccentricities and an act that would put the best actors to shame.

Harry got up and followed the prefect guiding him and others to their common room.

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**A.N:-Firstly I would like to apologize for my long absense. I got sick and then exams…**

**Tom is completely merged with Harry, he did not have any other option, Harry would have died due to exhaustion due to wrongly timed accidental magic. So Tom being the intelligent being he is chose to merge rather than completely destroy himself. He feared destruction and did not wish to know what happened on the other side, especially since he was a piece compared to others who moved on and were complete.**

**While the original soul piece would have been anchored on due to other horcurxes, he the accidental horcrux would have moved on.**

**Tom then sketched up a rough schedule for Harry to learn, what he deemed important and felt lacking when he reached Hogwarts.**

**No one whispers in his mind, not yet anyway. I am giving away something, but yes, the older Tom would somehow communicate with Harry at a later date, how he does it after completely merging is a surprise.**

**As for BASHING, Harry merely disliked Ron after scanning him ( he does not find invading privacy as morally wrong, just a precaution to look out for himself.), neither is Dumbledore bashed. Ginerva on the other hand maybe bashed, or rather used by harry (not that way!), but rather as what Bellatrix is to Tom, who does not want a fangirl who would do anything if you pay her attention.**

**If you avoid her she might try something idiotic, like potions. But if you made friends and then showed small bits of affection, you would get them to do what you want.**

**thanks to all those who reviewed  
**

**Trying to update from 19 march, but some error on stops me. Well i will update when i can.**

**if someone has problems updating, in the error message page, change the word "property" to "content" and press enter. Hope it helps till they fix it.  
**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer – I do not own any fictional character.**

**Legilimens-Chapter 9**

With the Prefects guiding them, Harry and the fellow Puffs descended down the stairs leading to the basement of the school, Tom never visited the Hufflepuff common room because he thought the "Puffs" beneath him. All the while people were watching Harry like a Hawk, namely Snape, McGonagall, and Sprout. The first years had formed a tight pack with girls at left and boys at right, somehow Harry found himself in the front mid, a typical position for a leader. Directly following the Prefect whose name he did not know yet. The puffs of his year had somehow non-verbally communicated and elected him to be their leader. Although another boy seemed to resent it, whose name if he was not mistaken was Ernie McMillan. Not that it mattered; Harry had the best tutor possible to learn Power plays and handling coups. They reached a Painting which was still, yet somehow appeared to be breathing, it had a different charm and appeared more lively than other paintings he had seen on his way, while those were animated it was "still and yet with life'. The painting was of a woman who one would consider pretty yet not beautiful. Yet in all the magical paintings he had seen this one somehow topped all of them. The prefect then announced the password, the portrait smiled slightly and opened. The inside was well lit and comprised of yellow and black hangings. Fat armchairs and well lit fires gave the place a nice feeling. They were led towards a corridor that comprised purely of tunnels with gates and each one was labeled according to year and gender. The tunnels led to their dormitories. The first years were told to make themselves comfortable, they were expected for a meeting with the Head of House in morning. Before anyone had any chance to speak Harry chose a bed that was near to a false window, bid his year mates goodnight. Being as tired as he was due to all the excitement it took no time for Harry to fall asleep.

Next day Harry arrived to the common room that had only a few students mostly older years that seemed to be preparing for their classes. All eyes turned to him when he entered, using his occulmency training Harry held himself with confidence under all the scrutiny and exited the common room, remembering the path with which he entered he followed it back to the great hall, again their was a rush of excited chatter even though their were not many early risers, and not many students of teachers were present. Snape and Sprout were already seated as was Dumbles who was watching everyone with a smile. If there was one good quality in Dumbles; it was his smile, for the naïve it put them at ease and for those who crossed him it simply created a chilling effect. Somewhat familiar to what his phoenix did, those he considered allies were boosted of moral and those enemies did not like its cry.

The Granger girl was the only Gryffindor first year present at her table, while the Slytherin table was empty of first years. Granger seemed to be immersed in a book he observed, and by the way she was flipping pages she seemed to be revising, at least she had some good quality, but why revise in front of great hall. Surely she could have slept one hour less and studied, it wasn't as if there was some exam later today.

Harry was interrupted mid breakfast/mid scrutinizing his fellow peers when he was joined by Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, Justin and Ernie. All looking at him apprehensively, Harry smiled slightly, poor kids were afraid to start a conversation with him and seemed to be waiting for him to make the first move. Soon enough Harry started asking them about themselves, to "Properly" introduce themselves all the while scanning them and was surprised, the lot was good at heart but was too "less slytherin", meaning easily manipulated one, not that he won't take advantage of the fact. Harry waited like a good little Hufflepuff for his peers to finish breakfast, a fact not missed by them, he could tell. Good! He was gaining their trust and it was good in his book, a firm backing of his own house followed by a few allies in each house for his own year, and some casual acquaintances in older years was a good thing to have as early as possible.

As they left they all had the misfortune of watching Ronal Weaseley taking his first bite, glaring at Hannah at pointing Ronald out they all marched back towards the common room, somehow keeping breakfast in its right place followed by Hannah who was amused yet her smile came as a grimace. The girl was the first to watch him eat and had pointed it to others thereby sharing her misfortune. But it was a good thing, from what little he had gained from Ronalds mind, the kid was unmotivated, lazy and of average intelligence, with no manners whatsoever

"Welcome everyone to Hufflepuff, as you might know you are here because you are hardworking and loyal, our house values loyalty, fairness and hard work above all other traits and hence you are here because the hat judged you to be here. It is well known that we are considered talent less by other houses, but let it be clear to you from today on, that it is not so. We are loyal and hard working does not mean we cannot be brave, or ambitious or intelligent. For example, Mister McMillan what is your goal in life."

"To take after my families business Professor", the boy in question replied somewhat shyly, a surprising change in the haughty behavior

"A great ambition, as Mr. McMillan's family controls a range of greenhouses for potion ingredients. Who said we cannot be ambitious, all other houses show traits that are admirable but our house shows us THE PATH to achieve our dreams. If you work hard towards your ambition, you can do it. Alumni of our house make things Happen, we do not get the spotlight, but that does not mean we do not contribute. We are known for our work ethic and dedication, bravery does not gets the job done neither does intelligence, someone has to do the job and that is where we come. I wish you best of luck for your first day and hope that by the end of the year you consider yourself a family. Never hesitate to ask help from me, your seniors or your peers, and never hesitate to help a friend in need. Work together and achieve your dreams, you are here to learn and grow, with the best environment possible. If you require assistance my office is always open."

The way the heart warming speech was delivered, with so much emotion, it was inspiring. Perhaps she would give additional lessons about speech giving. One could actually see the slight tension and unease in the Hufflepuffs go away after the speech. One had to look for it to find that yes; there was some tension due to being sorted in Hufflepuff, the so called house of losers. It was all gone.

Focusing back to the speech Harry heard further

"To help you all for your first year, each of you is assigned a mentor; mentors are volunteers that are given the chance to help the newcomers of Hufflepuff, those from second year and above. Let me be very clear, the mentors are doing this with no personal gain, please keep that in mind. They are doing because they wanted to help, be respectful to them as you are to a teacher. In no way are you to take them for granted. If you become friends it is good, but do not demand them to do work for you. The mentors will report monthly to me and will make sure that all you work is completed in time. You may ask them for book references but are absolutely forbidden to ask them for their completed homework". With a glare the speech was finished, when Bones asked

"When do we meet them?"

"Do not worry, those that have volunteered will find you within first two days. If not please inform me".

With that said we were shooed away for our classes.

"There, look at the tall kid with green eyes. That's Him!"

"Do you think he will talk to me?"

"Don't you think he is cute?"

"Whoa! Harry Potter….but still a Hufflepuff? Not so special after all"

"Agreed, not so special after all"

The whispers followed Harry wherever he went for the first day. The Hufflepuffs had formed a tight pack and were closely shielding Harry. Diggory was kind enough to help them know the way towards their classes; Poor kid excused himself five minutes early from each class to help them. The guy sure knew how to cement his position. Not so total Hufflepuff after all, with a charming smile and good looks if he was in Harry's year he would have felt threatened. It looked like Diggory would run for a political career, if he remembered correctly his father was a ministry dept. head after all. Good, it would make allying himself to him a lot easier if Diggory had the understanding of basics, then he would see the use of becoming friends.

The first class being Herbology with Gryffindors, they were given instructions about safety and conduct and a tour to the 3 greenhouses out of the 10, in which they would be working.

For about one month all they would do is read theory and get acquainted with the equipments used.

Next was potions with Snape. The foulest teacher ever! Although he did make an impressive entry, his overall doom and gloom demeanor made it difficult to focus on the subject. Why couldn't he be cheerful like Sprout, but then he imagined a cheerful Snape, the image was even more frightening, some things were best left as they were.

So with heavy heart he took in the rest of class room, the students had yet to come out of their musing. The class room was cold yet surprisingly fresh smelling given it was in dungeons and was used for potions; most if not all of them smelled foul.

"**You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word — like Professor Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort.** He carried on-

"**As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even stopper death—** **if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."**

"Although I already have doubts about your competence" his gaze lingered upon Harry,

Let's find out who is competent and who isn't with time shall we-

"**Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"**

"Given their properties, some sort of sleeping drought professor." Harry replied after small deliberation.

**Snape's lips curled into a sneer.**

"**Tut, tut — fame clearly isn't everything. **If you had read more carefully chapter 9 of "1000 magical herbs and fungi," you would have learnt that it was "drought of living death", the most potent sleeping potion."

"**Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"**

"An apothecary, a potions kit, your cabinet, a magical goat's stomach." several students snickered.

"It would be much appreciated if you keep your humor to yourself in this classroom Mr. Potter, but yes essentially correct answer. 10 points from Hufflepuff,"

"**What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"**

"It is the same plant, Proffessor."

"You forgot to mention that it is also called Aconite. I would expect you to come prepared better next time Mr. Potter else you will serve detentions. And that goes for rest of you as well."

"**Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?" **everyone except some Ravens started writing everything down, those ravens were already making notes.

Harry brought out his fountain pen and started writing on a parchment, Snape stalked nearer and called out on him.

"I will not tolerate you showing off in my class Potter, put that muggle contraption back in you pocket. Bring a quill next time and do not borrow one in this class, copy everything noted from someone and bring it along with next piece of homework I give. 20 points from Hufflepuff. You think you are special aren't you, you just had to think of something to show off."

Harry kept his head down and did not reply, he wasn't going to apologize, Snape expected him to.

Some students were appalled; some giving him looks of sympathy. Everyone now knew that Snape held a grudge against him, not to mention very few knew the answers to those questions and thus could not say that they would not have lost points in his place.

The rest of the lesson went without any incidence but Snape was on lookout to deduct points from them, especially Harry.

And so came Friday, their first Transfiguration lesson began. After an impressive display of animagus transformation by McGonagall she briefly introduced them to concepts of transfiguration which basically boiled down to belief, imagination and knowledge of structure of the object transfigured. She then demonstrated by changing the desk to an adorable dog, drawing looks of awe from everyone. Harry had to give it to McGonagall, she made everyone believe that it was possible, all the while displaying her skill in transfiguration and removing any doubts anyone held.

The rest of the lesson consisted of everyone trying to turn a match in a needle, Harry had already had some practice and was able to produce a perfect needle on his second try, much to McGonagall's delight, who informed him that his father was a prodigy in transfiguration and she would have been glad to have Harry in her own House.

Harry thanked her but politely replied that he liked his own house so far. The Granger girl was glaring at Harry as if he had broken some rule by succeeding; she herself had tried at least 12 times and had yet to even deform her needle.

McGonagall then gave Harry further instructions on how to turn the needle back to a match, further if he succeeded then turning multiple at once and back, much to Granger's fury, who was now altering between trying the spell and glare in Harry's direction.

**The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed this story. For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather; for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.**

A light touch of legilimency told him that Quirell was a wolf in a sheep's clothing. He had insanely strong presence in his mind and Harry would have been hard pressed to enter undetected, so he removed himself quickly. But something was off about Quirell, his mind did not seem strong yet there was an alternate presence that protected, like a second personality, it was partly the reason why Harry made hasty retreat, the presence was not animagus form, it was like a split personality perhaps; Or to Harry's horror a possession. It could be Tom himself possessing, or maybe some other dark wizard. Harry now had to conform what was hidden at Hogwarts that made the dark lord desperate enough to risk coming to Hogwarts. Something probably one in the world, but what? All he had seen Hagrid retrieving was a small grubby package. Harry cursed, maybe he should have stolen it from Hagrid, and doing so would not have been difficult if the package was not charmed with security spells. Maybe a switching spell would have done the trick; Harry would not have been able to force Hagrid magically; given his part giant parentage, which much he was sure of.

He had to keep an eye out, make sure that Voldemort did not get the package, it made everything so much clear, Dumbles baiting Voldemort and forcing Harry to confront Tom. But it also solved many things, Harry need not actively search for clues, he was sure Dumbles would provide him with some obvious clues and Harry just had to play along.

Next day he met Nymphadora again as she had appointed herself his mentor, how she did it would be some feat as he was sure others would have tried their luck to be Harry Potter's mentor.

"Wotcher Harry!, I would like to inform you that I will be your mentor for this year and any problems you have regarding school work and school in general you can ask for my help and advice." She finished with a playful wink, her blue hair turning pink by the end of sentence.

"Hello Nympha..." Harry had to dodge a stinging hex, the girl had insane reflexes and good aim given her supposed clumsiness.

"Call me Tonks", she glared at Harry.

"Nah, I prefer Nym... Ouch", this time Harry was not so lucky to dodge as Tonks had anticipated him moving and aimed accordingly

"You just wait Tonks, I will get you back just give me a month and half, and I will call you Nym.. Ouch". By this time some other students were snickering at Harry's predicament, Harry responded by glaring at her.

"Alright Tonks, lets keep our name issues aside, what exactly will you help me with. Till now the classes are good, except well potions and I am already a month ahead in reading the books."

"I'm glad you don't need me much, usually some people have trouble doing homework and to instill Hufflepuff work ethics mentors are forced, my job is to make sure that you do your work on time. You won't believe that people in other houses leave their homework for months at a time and then hastily finish it. It does not reflect well on the house as a whole. Mentors are appointed so that first years are not isolated, as you will have other years to interact with. Any homework you do, you must first show it to me before submission. Any detention you gain, you have to notify it to me. I will be report to our Head of House once a month about everything; gets me some extra credits in Herbology."

**GREAT HALL, FRIDAY MORNING**

Harry received his first mail which Hedwig brought him. Harry gently took the letter and offered some bacon to Hedwig. Scratching the back of Hedwig's head he asked

"How are you girl?"

"_hoot" all the while walking on Harry's hand she rubbed her head with Harry's cheek;Catching many peoples attention. _

"Do you like this place?"

"_Hoot" (while moving her head up and down)_

"You know you can visit me anytime right?"

"_Hoot" and a glare_

"Sorry for not visiting, you know first two days I was busy."

"_Hoot-Hoot" which Harry translated into, it does not matter, you should visit sometime._

"Sorry Hedwig, I will visit regularly, promise"

"_Hoot" which Harry translated to "you better"_

"How about I visit you today with some owl treats?"

"_Hoot", which Harry translated to – "That shall be appreciated"_

"Now may I read my letter, if you don't mind?", with a hoot and a nibble she took off and landed on the table, many eyes followed and looked back between Harry and Hedwig, Did Harry Potter just talked to his owl and did The owl reply back? Soon enough the rumour mill would be filled with Harry Potter having a very intelligent owl.

_**Dear Harry,**_

_**I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three?**_

_**I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig.**_

_**Hagrid**_

Penning down an affirmative Harry tied it back to Hedwig, who took off after an affectionate nibble.

Later that day Harry and his friends, that is Harry, Neville, Justin, Susan, Hannah and Surprisingly Zacharias Smith made their way towards Hagrid's

It so happens that Zacharias Smith is an annoying, sarcastic and egoistic person, or so it seemed when meeting him, Zacharias or Zach as Justin called him was just a bit insecure kid who was pressured to meet his family's expectation. Being the last known heirs of Hufflepuff line and having a big family business of Greenhouses and farms along with owning several preserves for magical creatures across the isles did that to you. His family had to go through a lot of trouble due to ministry scrutiny, because they grew rare potion ingredients and bred several ministry restricted creatures, both of which were necessary as well as dangerous. These strict checks due to ministry reduced profits; in short ministry feared them because all those ingredients if let loose could create havoc and sabotage the peace established. The last war was not kind either; Voldemort in his rage burned a few farms because he was not provided with class c tradable items upon request. Malfoy and Voldemort had great plans to sell the material abroad.

Still there was a reason as to why Smith was in Hufflepufff, which was apparent after two days, his stay in Hufflepuff dorms, i.e. when he warmed up to his house-mates and lost a bit of his pushy attitude.

Susan he figured had a crush over him and Justin was from a rich muggle family. Justin was someone Harry had no problem being friends with as he was not greedy, looking for fame or attention or trying to use Harry for any purpose. He was not awestruck fan-boy either as he was only introduced to the annoyingly hyphenated name/title given to Harry. After some talk he realized that Harry was just a normal kid who was good at magic.

Harry had made it clear in the common room the day before that he did not remember anything except some green light and he did not do anything. Harry had cracked a joke that maybe the Dork lord hiccupped while saying an incantation and killed himself as the result, or maybe he forgot which end was the business end of his stick. Gaining some gasps, some looks of awe, some of Horror and some chuckles of appreciations in process. It so happened that everybody was eavesdropping his conversation with Justin, Ernie, Zacharias, Susan and Hannah.

Neville had made friends with Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan, but both seemed to be party type boys, befriending Weaseley was out of question after a warning from Harry. Harry had learnt to send Messages through Legilimency to Neville and Neville had to reply such messages in the same manner. Harry did not allow Neville to speak when they were alone and all conversations were to be held with Legilimency. Although it frustrated Neville, he would admit that it was a good exercise to maintain a mental connection and learn Legilimency.

**When Harry knocked they heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. Then Hagrid's voice rang out, saying, "**_**Back**_**, Fang —**_**back**_**."**

**Hagrid's big, hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open.**

"**Hang on," he said. "**_**Back**_**, Fang."**

**He let them in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound.**

**There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire, and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it.**

"**Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid, letting go of Fang, who bounded straight at **Neville** and started licking his ears. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked.**

Hagrid then noticed his companions who had followed him – "well look at yeh Harry, and you brough' frien's." he peered at them with his large beady eyes making them all uncomfortable and nodding towards Susan asked – " yeh 'rent a Weaseley are yeh?"

"Hagrid meet my friends, Susan Bones, Just Finch-Fletchley, Zacharias Smith, Hannah Abbot and Neville Longbottom." He nodded towards each and Hagrid gave them each a warm smile.

Soon conversation started and surprisingly everyone wanted to be the one to talk, although Harry had not doubts as to why they were so enthusiastic to talk, it just so happened that talking was a very good way to avoid the deceptively good looking rock cakes.

"… and I just had to dive away from the devil snare at the greenhouse at our home" finished Neville looking towards Susan, but Hannah interjected "No way there wasn't any devil's snare at your greenhouse, your grandmother would not allow such a plant in your presence." She finished her sentence looking cross; apparently she did not like people who bragged.

At this Neville's ears pinked and he looked away from a guffawing Justin and Zach.

Hagrid gave Neville a knowing look and it occurred to Harry that Hagrid might be a shade more perceptive than he looked. He did not decide to comment and he could see why Neville appeared to be so desperate, Neville had seen Susan's crush on Harry. Harry made a note to talk to Neville about it later. Neville himself was nursing a crush on Susan and Harry had to repress a smirk, little children crushing on each other was so childlike and innocent, poor Neville seemed to have a first crush.

Harry snapped out of his musing when Susan suddenly exclaimed

"Hagrid, why do you have a clipping on Gringotts break in?" Harry looked over the mentioned article, an action mimicked by rest of his friends although he noticed Hagrid appeared to be confused too.

"Its nuthin' yeh need ter won'er abou', just another attempt teh rob Gringotts. Those goblins 'now their job. Nobody broke inter Gringotts eve', I reckon whoever did tha' is gonna get caught."

Harry was not convinced though, he knew whoever it was, was inside Hogwarts or rather inside the head of a teacher. He had seen Quirell and it appeared that Voldemort did not appreciate failure and seemed to have taken matters in his own hands, literally.

"Vault 713, Hagrid it is the same vault we visited on my birthday, you retrieved it for Professor Dumbledore! Does that mean it is at Hogwarts?"

Hagrid did not meet Harry's eyes and offered them a more cakes, a fact that did not go unnoticed by anyone.

It was getting late and they made their way back towards the castle. No words were spoke on their way back, everyone's thoughts were either on dinner or the break in.

OMAKE!

While Nissassa was typing this chapter lightning struck down on his home and somehow reached the computer. Nissassa hastily dived away and when he looked back what he saw made him rub his eyes twice. Harry Potter appeared to have materialized outside of the Computer!

When the apparition got his bearings together he saw a boy lying on the floor.

"YOU!" he yelled and in a swift motion punched Nissassa in the gut.

Nissassa himself being an athlete shook of his shock and in a quick move pinned the 11 year old boy to the ground.

"What the hell was that for? And are you really who I am thinking you are?"

"are you really that dumb and low on confidence that you do not trust your own eyes?" was the reply.

NIssassa-"Hey no need to go sarcastic on me"

Harry-apparation-"geez you made me that way idiot"

Nissassa-"okay, so what was that punch about?"

"WHAT WAS THAT PUNCH ABOUT?" Harry asked in disbelief

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW DIFFICULT REAL HARRY"S LIFE HAS BEEN?

First year the idiot makes friends with the first person he meets, next friend he makes is a social outcast of a girl who loves books and believes in everything she reads in the book and considers herself logical! Next he takes it upon himself to save a shitty stone never thinking that maybe it was not his job to protect it. And Dumbledore would never have left it so unprotected; the thought never crossed his mind that the stone would have been a fake. Who is daft enough to protect a stone in such a way that 3 first years are able to reach it? Who protects something and then announces its location to everyone? Then next year it never occurred to him that despite Flophart being DADA teacher there were more competent teachers present at Hogwarts? What happened to the tid-bit about Flitwick being a dueling champ? That maybe he should have asked for help from him instead? It was admirable that he was risking his life for someone who was a part of the family that took care of him but really he could have asked for other teachers.

Next comes the third year, with the diligence he showed in mastering patronus, couldn't he have practiced more spells? When he knew Black was coming for him, although Sirius was not guilty, it wasn't known to him was it. He learnt nothing from last 2 years. Then comes the tri-wizarding tournament, could he not have researched more about magical contracts? If it was really that easy to enter someone in a contract the purebloods would have made all muggleborns to enter contracts and taken away their ability to do magic. Contracts like "I will reach the moon in 1 hour, else I forfeit my magic" would have been hilarious to the purebloods. Magical contracts cannot be forced, if it was that easy the purebloods would have forced the muggle borns to sign slavery contracts. Then comes the weasely traitor, despite what happened to his fathers friends who happened to be friends for more that 7 years, Harry for once did not consider that Weaseley was a lost cause, never questioned his friendship, going as far as forgiving him without a proper apology? How about slacking off on finding clue to egg puzzle, did it never cross his mind that maybe the time given was given for a reason and if he did it early he could relax later? It was an international tournament for fucks sake! People died and it was stopped for a good reason. Next comes fifth year, did he have to go and shout about Voldemort being back? No, really was it really so sane to do such things to portray yourself insane when your sanity was already in question? The sheep was dying and it would die whether you warn them or you do not! I would say let them die, the leftovers might learn a lesson, the last war did not teach them much did it? Next comes sixth year and you see your second friend getting jealous of you because you happened to beat her at studies? Did it never rung alarm bells in his head that his friend might not LIKE him getting better at academics? Then he sees love potions and did it ever occur to him that given his celebrity status he might have already been dosed? Forget that, did it ever occur to him to get check ups at St. Mungo's ? There is a reason people have to go regularly for check ups. But no, the mighty Potter was arrogant enough to think that he was above such petty nuisances. Forget the last statement; it was too much like Snape. Next comes seventh year, When the Idiot gets to do magic freely the first act he does Is TyING SHOE LACES! What the FUCK! Idiot was not able to tie his shoe laces properly after seven years of magical tution and he had pretty good teachers, FLITWICK an MCGONAGALL are up to mark. " (For those who do not remember Harry summons glasses and the n tries to tie laces, both are incorrectly done)

"Next Weaseley happens to have indigestion in his happy stomach and leaves because he happens to suffer from constipation. AND still Harry accepts him! Not to mention the FIRST SPELL THAT he fires on Voldemort Happens to be EXPELLIIARMUS? The guy is about to kill you and you intend to fire a FIRST year spell?"

"Next he decides to go ahead and commit suicide to save others? What the hell? The idiot develops a hero complex and is ready to kill himself for ungrateful idiots that have only made his life difficult one way or another. Did he bother to think that his parents died to protect him and he must try not to get himself killed, his parents sacrifice themselves and the idiot thinks it is a good idea to get himself killed?"

"Okay, Ok I get it, what exactly are you ranting about? Where is this leading? If you are feeling so cross about it, talk to the real author don't go all emo on me"

"Where is this leading, Where is this leading, asks the idiot. Do you know I love reading fiction? Of course you do, you made me that way, and maybe you should know that I read a lot of fanfiction."

Nissassa-"Err... Did you, you live in early nineties, internet was not even running, hell there wasn't Internet for most people"

Harry-apparation gets a frown on his face then as if a light bulb is switched he replies – "of course, it is a plot hole idiot!"

Nissassa- "plot hole? What plot hole can exist in real life?"

Harry-Apparation replies with a deadpan - "I am here aren't I?"

Nissassa with a frown – "hmm"

"ok lets move back to the topic, do you know that other authors give amazing powers to their Harry?

Do you know shadow magic, wandless magic better than what Dumbles does with a wand, Elementals that can call firestorms, Phoenix or Dragon or Basilisk, or … or even better chimera animagus forms. Let's add Nundu and those awesome pokemons like mew in list. Even better the friendly Goblins who hate everyone but just fall in love with Harry because he remembered Griphooks name, when Goblins are known for treachery and have a reputation to stab on your back. Lets not mention they happen to have vaults of many extinct families who are all old and pureblood but of course no one was ever related to them and only the Potters seemed to be related, despite the fact that all pureblood families are related however distant. Not to mention those awesome rings that give you so good abilities and we do not consider that people like Malfoy also come from those families and may have similar powers. Let us not forget the adoption potion that gives you more magic that was previously dead."

All the time a tick mark was growing on Nissassa's face, I was there and I really did see the tick mark on the back of his head.

"Did you forget the good old Marriage contracts that seemed to be entered and are hundreds of years old, when their have been previous Lord Potters who somehow evaded the marriages. Not to mention that somehow the parents just seem to enter you in marriage contracts that make you lose your magic, yet we have Andromeda Tonks who seems to have married a Muggleborn, and she seemingly comes from the Black family, and parents are cruel enough to force contracts that makes their own children squibs if broken. Ever thought of giving me a Harem with Hermoine, Luna,Daphne,Susan, Nymphadora and not to mention McGonagall." He added dreamily

Nissassa's frown was pronounced and he seemed to have creeped out on the last sentence.

"Did you ever thought to make me heir of Merlin, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin etc. and maybe they would come in my dreams to give me special lessons that would make me powerful enough to put superman to shame."

"Ever thought of giving me a time stopping trunk to let me learn magic from the awesome world's largest library, the "Potter library" that contains tomes written by Merlin that my ancestors somehow missed to read, those books surely would make me strong."

This was too much for Nissassa and

"SLAP!, shut up brat don't get too smart, sure I made you smart, well much more smarter than Harry who seemed to have the same intelligence that he had in his first year, but I am twenty years old and have better intelligence that you currently possess. I learnt to lie when I was 8 years old, well lying convincingly enough to fool my parents. I learnt to manipulate people when I was 11 and used to get those that annoyed me enough to get them in trouble with teachers. I was considered the most innocent child of my class by my peers, and I still am considered. So don't start shouting at me as if you know better."

"fine you need to know, if I had given you a Harem you would be staying in the bedroom more than you would be spending in classes and practice room, practicing magic. Do you think anyone is good enough to get spells right in first try?

Next comes the abilities, I made you a metamorphagus, something that is undetectable, no one can detect a metamorphagus, I gave you the perfect disguise and 5years to practice it. Then I gave you Voldemorts memories".. at this Harry suddenly interrupted

"Yeah, Voldemort memories that are hidden from me." Harry-apparation spoke sarcastically.

"Slap!, shut up brat and listen first, had I given you all memories you would have gone after Voldemort, do you really think it was wise to give memories of those murders to you. It is good enough that you learn slowly but steadily. Things are achieved by those who wait patiently and work hard and work smart. I gave you the best short-cut possible, this way you will be able to save time that you would have spent on reading books, you just need to skim over and maybe read those that have newer editions. Not that there are too many changes."

"you are still a child!"

"I AM NOT A CHILD, I STOPPED BEING A CHILD WHEN VOLDEMORT CAME FOR ME"

"Slap! Quit interrupting idiot, and don't give that pathetic excuse for not being a child. What should I call an eleven year old? Maybe you are mentally 15 or 16 due to you unusual circumstances, but did you ever think that you are acting childlike. And for all the gold in your vault stop interrupting and stop channeling the idiot-Harry."

"Then I gave you the proficiency in mind arts and you had 5 years practicing them. Did it ever occur to you that if you play your cards right you may be able to learn at a much faster rate? You just have to think how to use legilimency and you might be able to learn much much faster than anyone."

"I gave you tools that can be used as you want, do you know how much legilimency helps when dueling, and you might attack someone's mind. I gave you such a versatile tool and you shout in front of me?"

"then you want to be heir of Merlin, Gryffindor etc, etc. did it ever occur to you that they were not heirs to some great person, that maybe they achieved what they achieved on their own? There is a reason that I put you in Hufflepuff. You work your way to greatness, you are not handed something. You plot, you plan, you use you knowledge and your bravery to pull those plans off.

Here you want to fight Voldemort the current leader of Pureblood Ideology and you want to get something through your heritage. How much of a hypocrite you are? Those think that because they are purbloods they must be handed everything. You are channeling them in your childish tantrums."

"Next comes those goblins who are famous for treachery and yet you want them to be friendly and docile like dogs? Next you would want that they give you free BL*****s considering they have extremely sharp teeth. Do you know Griphook betrayed IDIOT-Harry when it was Harry that had saved Griphook from Malfoys? Do you really think all the pureblood families put all their money in Gringotts when the Goblins are known to rebel from time to time?"

"The trunk I gave you is practical enough; Voldemort was obsessed about seven, so it has seven compartments, are they not good enough for you? I even added a ritual chamber to it! Next you would want one trunk that has whole Hogwarts in it; not that it isn't a good idea."

"And I gave you and ambition, did I not? Idiot-Harry does not have any ambition whatsoever. And you want to rule whole Britain, is it not good enough when added to bringing down Dumbledore and Voldemort?"

"How many 11 year olds can think of killing as casually as you do? I know it is necessary when you will soon face a civil war, but did you ever think that I took away that stupid Gryffindor tendency while keeping all that bravery in you. Is it not good enough?

Not to mention you are paired with Tonks, can you find a better girl? I admit Hermione is good looking and with little tweaking we can get a good girlfriend and partner. But can you really imagine Hermione to want to rule like you want to? To defy all authority? To have fun etc, etc. That would simply make Hermione a NOT-Hermione. I paired you with Tonks did I not? What better than a girl intelligent enough to be an Auror despite the male dominant society, fun loving that brightens everyones day around you, comedic and clumsy enough for you to act as her Knight when she falls down, ever imagined holding her close when she falls down and you try to save better yet when she stumbles near you and falls over you? And the best part above all she is A metamorphagus just like you and would feel secure around you considering you yourself are a Metamorphagus? Imagine her in bed? Not to mention I removed that 7 year age gap that would have made all romance seem creepy and Tonks a pedophile"

By this point Harry-Apparation was drooling

"Brat! Pay attention. Do you really think it is not enough?"

Harry-Apparation falls down on his knees and starts chanting- "I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy."

Nissassa's scowl softens-"good boy, remember you are just 11 year old. Go back to your world now. I need to post the latest chapter."

Just as Harry-Apparation was about to set his second foot in the monitor Nissassa calls out

"Harry!" The apparition looks back to see Nissassa's finger pointed towards him and hears – "OBLIVIATE!" Next he wakes up lying on his bed in Hufflepuff chamber with no very vague recollections of some strange dream. He shakes his head and prepares for the next day.

**AN:- had a lot of fun writing the Omake. Curse , meant to post this last week but site wasn't responding (again).**

**By the way I have the plot decided but have to yet write the filler. Have the notes on ending and I thought that maybe I could write the key events here if you want to try your hand at writing.**

**So here it is : Nissassa's Mind Mage Challenge.**

**1) Harry has just topped his class and arrives only to be beaten by Vernon.**

**2) Harry accidentally performs legilimency on Vernon when thinking about what wrong did he do. Harry is above average intelligence and does know that he is not treated like everyone else is. He is 6 or 5 years old. The strain is too much and Voldemorts soul consents to be absorbed to become one soul since he fears moving on. Harry gains memories that are Set on a timetable by Voldemort, he does not knows all memories and learns while sleeping ( mostly) or when something intrigues him. He gets flashes.**

**3) Harry then learns to control magic wandlessly for abut 4 years all the while making crude ward to avoid detection. The extent of which can be decided by author. I personally recomment levitation, banishing, sticking and at the most stunning. Not to mention rune charging.**

**4) Harry developes his mind arts abilities and heals Frank and Alice who will later become his guardians (timing on the author, personally before Hogwarts.)**

**5) Harry must be Hufflepuff. Reasons stated in the fic.**

**6) Paired with Tonks,Hermione acceptable. Harry-Ginny absolutely forbidden.**

**7) No character bashing, you may make fun but all must have good and bad qualities. Dumbledore can be made fun of but Harry idolizes him in a twisted way. He wants to bring him down and take his place at those 3 seats that are Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, and Headmaster.**

_**Next are Spoilers that would reveal my plot, but I update slowly and I personally do not mind spoilers and read the fic. IF you do not want to read spoilers of this story just close the TAB**_

**8) Harry tries to avoid tri-wizard tournament but Dumbles foils his plan. ( Dumbles now knows about Harry, but Harry does not know that yet.)**

**9) Harry gains Malfoys allegiance (timing up to the author)**

**10) Harry knows about voldemort's plan and uses it to his advantage. He knows by reading Fake Moody, (Do you expect someone who has been under imperius for years to have proper mind protection)**

**11) Harry confronts Tom at graveyard and while Tom is in Baby form convinces Tom that he is the Horcrux that was made by Tom accidently and now possessed Harry Potter.**

**12) Tom then reveals the ritual for rejuvenation ( Voldemort admits that he invented it himself.)**

**13) Harry then uses some potions to weaken Toms mind when he is in homunculus body. Putting good use to legilimency he rewires Tom's mind. Essentially making Tom a slave, he then orders Tom to keep using wit sharpening Potions to avoid suspicion as Tom's mind is permanently damaged (more insane YaY!)**

**14) Dumbledore now knows of Harry's activities and silently helps him from background without anyone's knowledge.**

**15) Harry confronts Dumbledore and Dumbledore then reveals that he only had welfare of wizarding world in mind. Realistically speaking he did not believe that a child could take on Voldemort and the confrontation was needed to save many more lives. Harry accepts his reasoning although he did not like it but he does understand that from Dumbledore's point of view it was necessary. Dumbles explains that the backward sheep minded wizarding community did not have brains enough to stand on their own legs and hence Dumbledore had to take the job. Dumbledore actually liked a simple life, but he could not gain one due to pressure all around and pressure of being head of family which he fails spectacularly. Hence he had to rise to meet everyone's expectations and by defeating Grindewald he cements his position. Dumbledore then takes a magical oath startling Harry and would later die peacefully because he sees the future in Harry's safe hands. Everything was for the Greater Good after all. Dumbles dies peacefully passing torch to Harry.**

**16) Harry then uses Tom to eliminate national and international threats or the would-be threats that would occur when he tries to gain power, all the while increasing terror.**

**17) Harry faces a lot of harassment from ministry because he states return of Voldemort.**

**18) When by the end of year Tom does reveal Himself as plotted by Dumbledore and Harry, Harry refuses to fight because everyone refused to believe him; Further increasing his importance. He then gets a contract from the ministry that he would not be sent to Azkaban for killing Voldemort and states Voldemort's background in the open. Dumbledore and Harry bring out the prophecy in the open very subtely.**

**19) Voldemort challenges Harry to a Duel in mid of Diagon Alley stating that it would crush everyone's hope when Harry dies. **

**20) After much pleading from everyone Harry agrees to duel Tom and as planned Tom loses in front of everyone, dying by the end of the duel. (The duel is spectacular and Harry is injured quite a bit)**

**21) Dumbledore dies due to Horcrux Hunt and after his death as planned some of his machinations come into light regarding Harry, Harry gains more points with Wizarding World.**

**22) Hence Harry and his friends take the role of leaders and change magical Europe. Asia and America are very advanced in their own ways.**

**23) Harry then passes bills to develop magical weapons of mass destruction following which they find ways to neutralize muggle weapons, Such as charming nukes to vanish when fired. Protection from bullets and bombs, like amulets etc.**

**24) 80 years from HP timeline the Magical world is revealed but Muggles fail to win because of Superior Magical weapons, Destroying all satellites and power plants of the world. The muggles have to fall back on magicals to survive cementing Magic users in the world.**

**Use more creativity to write a good epilogue.**

**Many chapters are written but not in order. Need to write fillers.**

**Thank you everyone on the Reviews for the previous chapter.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer :- I do not own any fictional character**

** I do not own Harry Potter. ( i wish i did)**

**Legilimens-Chapter 10**

The days went by with Harry noticing the decrease in attention directed towards him, the novelty of Harry Potter at Hogwarts dieing off. Harry started preparing some of the plans he had to set in motion. He needed the old man off his back before he could perform more advanced magic. The Hufflepuff dorms true to their motto had several warded rooms to practice magic, the only rules being that a seventh year had to be present during practice. Harry made full use of it to make several allies in upper years, many times asking them for pointers although he did not need any, not because he was arrogant but because of the huge amount of information available to him. Tom Riddle did not like doing things halfway, he read as many books as he could and then practiced, drawing his own conclusions, making extensive notes that could be written in form of books without unnecessary information such as history of the spells, name of inventors etc. A big contrast to Hermione Granger who read theory to form opinions, then believing them she practiced magic. The girls simply did not have an opinion of her own, yet she had a massive stubborn streak. Being stubborn could be both a boon and a bane, it could take you to the top of the world or it could get you killed. Harry decided for now to leave the Granger girl alone, she had very little redeeming qualities and would not make a strong ally. Sure the girl was a hard worker, and book smart, but she could not be called intelligent. Tom Riddle and Dumbledore were intelligent, even Ronald Weasley as much as Harry loathed admitting, was intelligent in his chosen field, that is chess. He had seen a game Weasley was playing on Saturday morning in the castle grounds and the boy was brilliant when he applied himself at it. Granger on the other hand had very good memory for a person who had little to no training in mind arts. She meditated the mundane way but it was good enough to give her a rudimentary grasp at occulmency, She had a very organized mind for someone who did not do it deliberately, but she simply did not have imagination, she was the perfect material for someone who wanted an assistant, she could help others but she lacked what it took to do something on her own, she would not betray you and steal your research. She was loyal too! But still she was a muggleborn, and a muggleborn that had no tact whatsoever add that to no social skill and her arrogance which he observed when Lavender Brown tried to give her a book for Wizarding etiquette, the girl actually rejected it and said it was backwards!

McGonagall was showering her with praise going as far as saying that she had the making of the "Greatest witch of her age" and Harry had to suppress a snort violently.

She was just like a parrot she read and she read to memorised everything and then vomit it out eagerly when someone asked, while having no sense to summarize things. Books were meant to give complete and detailed information, what was the use of memorizing line by line when only relevant information was to be used. He had seen one of her essays that was twice the size required, affirming the belief of the girl having little common sense to go along with her sharp memory.

Add all this to her being a muggleborn, meaning no social status, no wizarding money and her being bossy, you get a perfect Dumbledore toady material. She would go ahead and tattle you to others if she thought it were for you own good, without any consideration of the others persons feeling on that matter. No wonder she did not have any friends.

She was too much trouble that it was not worth to befriending her, and Harry was not some golden boy who would take pity on her and try to befriend her, there were better people out there with lesser faults, all this not counting her obsession with those in authority put her in Harry's avoid list. She simply had too much to offer than the cost of maintaining such friendship.

Although if something happened and ensured the girls loyalty towards him; he had no problem being friends with her.

Another was the Weasley boy, though the boy could be good if he applied himself, Harry could not see him go far, he was lazy, had an immense inferiority complex, was immensely jealous and thought that the world owed him.

Harry and Neville made their way to the owlery where Harry greeted Hedwig and Neville sent his letter to his grandmother, although Harry also made some requests aside from the usual pleasantries in the letter.

Harry grinned and was eagerly waiting the reply and to see his plan in action. Harry felt a mind probe from Neville and grinned

"let… sent"

"Much better than last try Neville" Neville smiled shyly, still not used to the praise.

Harry had begun instructing Neville in art of legilimency after going over basic occulmency. Harry reasoned that not only did it teach you a new art, but regularly sending and receiving probes helped learning occulmency. It was the reason Harry was so proficient in Occulmency. When you probed someone's mind you subject yourself to mental assault of information at an unnatural pace. That led to development of occulmency at the best pace possible. It was a natural way for the brain to handle the excess information that is adapting itself on instinct and organizing itself to deal with the assault, not to mention to learn how to destroy unwanted information and how to retain what was meant to retain. That was merely a part of it; the brain became more efficient and formed instinctual way to counter the influx brought by its own actions that is, legilimency. If you could counter your own legilimency, you gained the ability to counter others that were somewhat more skilled than you yourself were. It was a win win scenario and Harry and Neville had started a scheme of sorts, Neville would only read half of the core subjects from books and half would be read from Harry's mind, It was needed that Neville practiced legilimency on an occulmens to get a grasp of it, if invasive mind magic was used by an untrained individual then you had to be prepared for the guilt of shattering someone's mind or damaging it in some way or another.

It was also a quicker way to learn, transferring knowledge was much faster than reading from books and Harry's own knowledge on Herbology improved.

Meanwhile Harry had to try his best to not assassinate Snape, seeing as Snape was doing his best impression of a wounded dog holding a grudge. Such a dog barked and barked in hope to intimidate its foe. Harry was not going to let Snape be, Snape was in Harry's book a dead man; he just did not know it. The only reason Snape was alive and kicking along with bullying people was because Snape was too damn predictable, all sort of responses that Snape could think of in any situation, Harry knew them. For being a Slytherin he sure was doing a fine job, portraying himself as the next dark lord in front of kids. He Harry knew that if he used his status not to mention Snape's foul reputation, Snape would be lucky to avoid Azkaban; sabotaging education was a punishable crime and only Dumbles protection was saving him. Snape and Tom had planned Snape's betrayal but Tom always had his doubt. Snape was a dog with many masters yet he was loyal to none.

Snape prided himself as being a master occulmen but just after his joining Death Eaters, he was injured when Aurors arrived on time for once, of course it was on Tom's orders that he had stopped his agents from running interference, he himself had taken part in that particular raid, a rare occurrence. Normally he did not pay "visits" to anyone, but this one was to increase his terror and provide reminder to the wizarding population. The DE did not usually fight open battles, nor did they attack in daylight or public places. The death eaters were ordered to attack people's home at night and next day bodies were found with a Dark Mark hovering above. But on that particular raid He made sure that Snape was injured along with Regulus Black.

Doing so, he was able to grab both of them while they were unconscious and apparated to a secret place, where he had used legilimency with the aid of some hallucinogens. Snape was not that good at that time to resist such attack. He did not even remember anything after being stunned.

In short he had very good measure of Snape and it was the reason he was not taken into their inner circle, him not being wealthy did not hurt the fact either. His cousin had inherited all the Prince fortune and left the country for France.

Harry apart from potions was having a good time at Hogwarts, he excelled in practical work but made sure to score low on theory, there were no practical exams till third year and this would give Harry third best grades amongst his peers, Neville too followed Harry's example and was getting about fourth position so far. Not that there had been much testing but they did receive their first grades on homework assignment.

He had seen Draco Malfoy spying on him, probably on his father's instruction but strangely he did not challenge Harry's authority and did not speak out of line, although he was known to prance around lording over others. He had seen him trying to bully his fellow 1st and 2nd years, atleast those who had lower social standing than his own, What did Malfoy used to say in Tom's time, that is Abraxas Malfoy – "A Malfoy always knows his place, the best amongst the best". Now that five years previously Malfoy got his place on Board of Governors of Hogwarts, after the death of the senior most board members, and for once the position was not gained by Malfoy by assassination, the old guy was going to croak any day. Not that Malfoy dare to try assassination of the eldest Smith.

Although all could never be well, as Ronald Weasley was trying his best to get on his nerves:-

Flashback

"Hey Harry!, mate why don't you ditch those losers and come sit with us lions, we would accept you on our table even if you are from the house of losers. You are a hero, Harry and heroes must sit with Gryffindor"

Zach, Ernie and Justin were all sharing similar scowls and looking at Harry to see how he would respond, in half a month they had known Harry one thing was most certain, he had a very smart mouth when he wanted to have one, calling the dark lord as Dorky and Snape as "Snappy".

Meanwhile Harry looked past Ron towards Neville who just came down from the Gryffindor dorms, winking at him Harry motioned his friends to follow as Ron and Seamus sitting with the Prefect-Weasley (who it seemed did not like sitting with his brother) Harry marched past them and sat opposite to Neville.

Looking at Ronald he replied-

"Sure Ronald, I would love to sit with a real lion instead of some loser who acts like a pig on two legs." Giving a glance to the plate piled in front of the red-head.

Confusion marred Ronald's face while he tried to figure out the meaning, while the Great Hall erupted in laughter

But this encounter did help setting Harry's "puffness" firmer. People now stopped doubting whether he belonged in Hufflepuff both in actions and in their minds. Initially there was a lot of doubt and rumours were running about the BWL going puff for more attention to BWL being Slytherin. Harry had to laugh at the idiocy of it all, Tom once wanted to unite all houses and although he had a much less subtle approach to it the intentions were actually good. He wanted Slytherin to be the only house, but he actually wanted it for the purpose of unification seeing the less than ambitious would also be a part of his house.

Meanwhile Draco could not let the chance go by and he had provoked the red-head idiot to a midnight duel in front of everyone, Harry knew Malfoy would never show up and he himself took advantage of it by slipping a tip to Peeves.

Weasley was looking pale the next day but was rather unharmed much to Harry's disappointment, strangely the Granger girl had taken it upon herself to "guide" Weasley and accompanied him towards the Three-headed dog which Hagrid lovingly called " 'luffy".

Flashback End

Shaking out of his musings Harry moved towards the Quidditch pitch seeing it was to be their first lesson. It was scheduled along with the Ravens and true to their name some Ravenclaw's were sporting books with them.

The instructor was a slanted eyed woman with a stern face and white hair. Rolanda Hooch ordered them to stand in front of their brooms in a line. The brooms, if you would call them that were outdated beyond belief, yet Harry would admit the enchantments were very well done. You could not give learners a Nimbus 2000 could you?

They were then shown the correct way to call their brooms and after some tries everyone was able to do so.

Next came the mounting where she criticized a lot of students who were from wizarding families for their grip and methods.

And then came the most exciting and nerve wreaking part – to fly.

Harry found he excelled in it, Tom was an acceptable flier but he was not a natural, Harry was a natural. He found he could fly very well and he already had good hand eye coordination to the point he could write with both hands, not to mention all those exercises were aiding him in controlling his broom like no other in vicinity.

He soon started doing dives and rolls instead of laps and Madam Hooch had to whistle twice to make him stop.

"Very good Mr. Potter" she said eying him carefully.

"Your father would have been proud of you; he himself was a very good player. I would recommend that you take part in reserve trials for chaser and seeker." All the while everyone was looking at him in awe.

They were dismissed soon after and the Hogwarts rumour-mill was full of Harry Potter again.

He had already been sought out by Cedric and Nymphadora, whose name he still spoke out loud, to try for the quidditch team. Nymphadora, because of being mentor, and Cedric because he was on the team as seeker this from last year.

His talks with Nymphadora aside from studies also changed and he now knew the reason why she was a second year.

"Nymphador…" dodging a stinging hex he continued "why are you a second year and not in you age group?"

She looked at him carefully and then replied with a sigh

"I caught dragon pox last year and had to remain isolated for 5 months, normally it does not cause such harm except in old age, but some people are affected much worse than normal and I happened to be one of them."

"Isn't there a vaccine or something, or maybe a cure?" he asked curiously. She replied sadly

"A vaccine is their, and a cure too, but the vaccine sometimes fail, especially to those who need it the most, apparently such people have lower resistance to such highly magical virus. Well until they once catch it, after once the immune system is strengthened significantly. As to the cure, my parents are not wealthy enough to afford it and being isolated in a room was the only way."

"And why not request exams separately?"

"You would not understand, my parents are not liked by some people and they took this chance and blocked my petition citing that I had no practical instructions and for my own good, I need to re-do the year."

Harry started thinking furiously..

"So that is the reason she wanted to befriend me, being a Potter and being Harry Potter allows me a good political clout. She is daughter of a cast-out black and a muggleborn, people are especially nasty to her family. The girl is much more Slytherin than most and lives up to her Slytherin heritage. She just like me would not have been liked well in Slytherin, especially when her mother ran away from the contract."

"That sucks Nympha…." *dodge* "dora, you had your birthday in September, so you were almost a year early."

Tonks just shook her head sadly, and brightened up, her hair colouring up from brown to pink in a second "So, now how about you show me you transfiguration homework?" and then the conversation moved on to their study subjects.

**A.N- Harry's plan will be shown in next chapter.**

**Sorry for being late, I went for a vacation and it was after 3 years!, first two I had to spend studying and next year I got enrolled in college. But enough of petty excuses, I have edited the previous chapters and fixed a lot of problems, I hope they are now acceptable.**

**Next chapter will contain my views on most major canon characters and why I do not like some common ones. Some of those views are shared by one other author whose name I do not remember but you can search for a fic name "Lily's changes"(in my favorites) and read the first 3 chapters. My views are astonishingly similar for some of the "well liked ones", like Arthur and The twins.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer – I do not own any fictional character.**

**Legilimens-Chapter 11**

She was sitting in Flitwick's class, one of those in which Harry Potter was not present. She did not like him, he was always confident, he excelled in all the practical work, even the potion master could not berate him too much without resorting to extremely petty excuses, when he tried as such he received condescending look which would make everyone seem small, Harry Potter had his way to make people look small whereas he was the child and Snape the adult. Harry Potter was always surrounded by friends; he looked good, had confidence and it seemed that he did not even open a single book! She read almost all the time, almost daily issuing and depositing books from the library. She worked hard to complete her homework, yet when it counted, that is the practical in potions, herbology and transfiguration she was unable to manage what he did in twice the time. He was the only one who was able to complete the transfiguration in first class and in the same class he was now changing 5 needles at once and then back, while she was hard pressed to do three.

He always had that damn smile on his face, as if everything was effortless. It made her feel small. She always wanted friends, he had friends, she wanted to excel yet come out her image of a bookworm, he excelled as far as practical was considered and his essay was not too shabby either. She thought that reading theory would be enough! She would be able to accomplish things, yet he could do it, not that it mattered much if he grew up as a wizard and not a muggle like her; but he lived with muggles and got his wand about the same time she did and yet he was able to accomplish things easily. There was one Greengrass girl who was able to do most spell in first try, but it was known she had been tutored. Harry Potter comes about and beats her where it counts and yet is not called a boring person like she is.

He had everything she wanted and then some. She just could not stop being jealous. She had thought maybe being in company of fellow wizarding children, she would be able to make friends and she tried, but after insisting to be in Gryffindor, after all the headmaster was one, she could not make one single friend! She had yet to try other houses but the Ravenclaws did not like her, which was apparent and Hufflepuffs were very tight knit group already where Potter held the court. Slytherin was out of question. Brown and Patil did not seem nice enough to befriend, Lillian Moon who was quiet and rarely spoke, she made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with her. She was alone again. Today she had completed the levitation charm flawlessly after just 11Th try and was elated, it was first charm they were taught and she did it in less than half the tries it took to accomplish the first transfiguration spell. She was glad Potter was not here, she noticed she was distracted due to his presence, perhaps which made the spell easier to learn. Then she saw Seamush Finnigan burn his feather and Weasley seemed to be trying to accomplish the same. She tried helping him, although she did not realize it then that it was more due to the fact that correcting others made her feel superior rather than genuinely being concerned for the red-head, who then rebuffed her attempts at correction and did it quite rudely. But she wisely backed off and then performed the charm flawlessly and this time it was noticed by the diminutive professor, earning her house 10 points. But the last remark hit her where it hurt the most. The remark as she reminded herself was – "No wonder she does not have any friends". It was the reason she was here in the girl's bathroom, she craved recognition and the teachers were the only one who gave her that. Her parents were always too busy with their clinic and she was always alone. She then heard the thundering footsteps followed by a very pungent stench that sent warning bells in her head. For all her faults, she was not stupid enough to not hide and hide she did in one of the cubicles, and prayed for any deity listening that whatever arrived with the smell left her alone and went on its way. Alas, it was not so, she could distinctly hear the noise nearing her cubicle. Whatever was present it had somehow known about her and was reaching slowly towards her. She could either sit or she could run and she chose to run.

Bolting out of the door she barely dived when the spot she previously occupied was hit by a club and a massive one at that, promptly splintering the cubicle door that she left. Following the club attached to the hand she came across the ugliest being she had seen in her lifetime apart from some fiction books. A real mountain troll with the stupidest face attached to its huge body. She dived again as it seemed that the troll followed the policy of hitting first and asking questions later, although if it had enough wits to formulate one was another matter entirely. The troll had taken its aim again and it was ready to hit her and she was not exactly the athletic type, she was able to avoid two blows but the third was sure to hit. She gave away all hope and closed her eyes terrified of what she might see if she had them open, and waited…

The blow never came, there was a dull thud followed by another louder one. She slowly opened her eyes and in front of her laid the mountain troll she was terrified of, apparently knocked out cold. She looked around to see Harry Potter staring down at the troll with one palm open and stretched and his wand pointed slightly upwards, had she known magic more she would have recognized the stance of someone who had used magic wandlessly and with a wand simultaneously or almost simultaneously and the posture of wand showing that of someone relinquishing control of a spell, it was usually done by an upward flick.

It took her some time to realize that she was safe and the threat was over. Getting over her shock she ran towards the only person available and the same one who had saved her, she latched on to his arm almost painfully, not realizing the fact that she was mentally cursing the same person less than six hours ago. This was the scene when the teachers arrived along with the Headmaster, with an ever present twinkle in his eye, as if the whole fiasco was a regular occurrence, if he felt alarmed at the breaching of the school and by a mountain troll no less he did not show it. Soon Hermione's rational side kicked in, the security section of Hogwarts A History clearly stated that the school was protected by very strong wards, wards that no one had breached without alarming the right people. The fact that they were breached by a mountain troll was both laughable and worrying at the same time, laughable because of all dangerous creatures a troll was one of the least intelligent and worrying because it made clear that the breach was engineered. She would have asked questions relentlessly giving her reasons when-

"Can someone explain what happened here? What is the meaning of all this?" the questions were shot by McGonagall in a crisp voice but it was evident that the same thing was on the mind of other teachers as well, aside from Snape and Dumbledore, the former was glaring at Harry as if asking why he was not the one on the ground knocked out or better dead? She was about to answer the question when Harry beat her to it.

"Professor, Susan told me that Granger here was crying in the bathroom and Susan was worried about her, not to mention that she missed the feast that the school is enjoying. Some time later Professor Quirrel announced the presence of a Troll and we all were ordered to return to Common Rooms, but I noticed that Granger here was not told by anyone and I thought that I should warn her as there was no time to waste. I arrived when the Troll was aiming for Granger and I did the first spell that came to my mind and levitated the club and brought it down its own head. It was the only thing that came to my mind."

All the while she nodded at the right place confirming the story.  
Harry was enjoying his time at Hogwarts, the first year coursework was pathetically easy in his opinion and he had lots of free time, he spent most on spell work and rest exploring Hogwarts, throw in the occasional games with his friends and hexing Filch and his cat. He had to tread carefully and a single mistake could result in unnecessary questions and scrutiny. He had yet to learn anything advance in terms of spellwork, although he regularly did his wandless exercises on his bed, in the safety of privacy charms that were set on all beds. It had happened when Harry was holding court with Susan, Justin, Zacharias, Hannah and surprisingly Nymphadora who sat with them upon Harry's invitation, she did not have many friends especially when she had to redo one year of her education, the other students had moved on and she wasn't much liked because of her ability to shapeshift. She was regarded with jealousy because of her good looks and her ability to change them and it had taken her about 6 months to make friends in the first place, she had many acquaintances because of her year drop, she had two different years worth of acquaintances. Susan had just informed Harry that Granger was crying in the bathroom and would not listen to her and come out, and maybe they should do something to help her. Harry was not inclined to do much, it was too troublesome and he wouldn't be getting anything out of it. Harry had made friends with everyone because they could offer him something and he could help them in return, it did not mean he did not care about them, Harry just chose them carefully, with the aid of legilimency, making sure that he would not regret. He genuinely cared for all his friends but he did not become friends with others for sh*t and giggles.

There was nothing wrong with choosing friends carefully, if it meant that the friends would be with you in your worst time and not betray you when they are needed the most. One doesn't just become attached to others in a second, as Harry interacted he started liking them, what was the point of being someone's friend when all they would do is to drag you down? If a person could not carry their own weight no need to load them on your wagon. All his friends had to offer something and Harry himself had a lot to offer back, Granger was too much trouble to care about.

If he started taking care of everyone he would not have the time to breathe. As harsh as it was, Harry was not here for charity. There was a lot of fiction spewing true friendship where people became friends just for the hell of it. It did not work that way! For becoming friends two people had to interact in some way, and Harry chose carefully whom he interacted with. Ernie was a fine example, he was pompous and jealous type of person, it did not mean that he was not good at heart, but it meant that until Ernie got rid of thoughts of usurping the position Harry held in their little group, Harry would continue being distant. It was not possible for Harry to isolate Ernie, it would only mean trouble in long run, since all the Hufflepuff first years sat together and shooing Ernie away would not look good for him. The other first year Puffs would be friends with Ernie, but they knew about the awkwardness between Ernie and Harry, and they knew to stay out of it.

Then the doors of the great hall slammed open and (s)Quirrel was seen squeaking about a Troll. Harry led his friends to the prefects and then slunk away. He had to think, he could go and warn Granger, the troll was likely where she was and the only thing right about a troll was that it could overcome its own stench and smell things around, it ate an elephant's diet after all, or he could simply join his friends. If Granger was harmed or killed it would not look good on Dumbles record, but then again Dumbles would sweep it under the rug, Granger was a "mudblood" in eyes of the general wizarding public and would not be missed by many. It would be almost too easy to keep people quiet about it, or he could merely frame the girl for leading the troll in. On the other hand, in the worst case scenario he could save the girl and be the knight with a wand, and some awesome mind arts too, or he could simply warn her and lead her away. He could gain a follower, meet Dumbles expectations and keep him from watching too closely. Did he want Granger as a friend? He already had a muggleborn as a friend which would help to keep the moderates off his back and any rumors of him being a pureblood elitist. Well, he could keep Granger with his court and let Susan teach her some necessary things about being a witch. Hopefully Granger would be an asset rather than a burden.

He had plans for the greater good, dreams he needed to make a reality. But he remembered his own situation and he knew what it felt to be bullied, and that only a miracle had saved his life, so maybe he could help Granger. He could always avoid being friends with her. He had sworn that one way or other, wizards would be able to use their magic in open someday. And no one would dare try anything, whether it happened with greetings or by genocide he did not care. He would make sure that one day he had a big family and all his children got a childhood, and not just his children, all magical children and if possible every child of the world. He was first loyal to magic and everything came second. If Granger posed a threat he would abandon her, and then there were some more drastic measures too, if needed, his sentiments be damned. Decisions had to be made with very little emotion or else all you would do, would be short sighted. Every single decision would have its consequences. With his decision made he ran towards the bathroom and just in time to wandlessly push the Trolls head taking its attention away from Granger and then quickly levitating the club out of the Troll's hands.

"Perhaps we must ask why Miss Granger was not at the feast, and why Mr. Potter decided to be the hero rather than informing a teacher about it." Snape, ever the Slytherin would obviously paint him in a bad light and did just that, making his statement sound as if he had done what he did for gaining attention. Harry was mildly offended; he wanted Dumbles attention away from himself not on himself.

At this point Hermione wanted to interject, she was going to take the blame, she was grateful but again Potter, no Harry spoke first – "The teachers were not present, most departed immediately and I had no way to tell anyone by the time I realized that Granger was not warned, I could not send one of my friends after a teacher, what if they found the troll first? And, as for Granger being absent from the feast as Susan told me, she heard from her friend Lavender that Weasley was rude to Granger here and she was upset about it."

Harry noted as McGonagall got a look of understanding, so did Sprout and he saw Flitwick discreetly casting a cheering charm at Granger and Granger's hold on him lessened.

Sprout's expression soon turned to a scowl- "As justified as it may be to you Mr. Potter, and as lucky as you are this instance, I cannot condone such behavior from a student of my house, you were not qualified enough to confront a mountain troll, certainly not when full grown wizards sometimes have trouble with such creatures. A month's detention would help you learn the certain fact."

Sprout had unintentionally played the part of the bad cop, and he was sure that the headbastard was going to play the good cop, being one to never let an opportunity go waste. Such a tactic was very effective against naïve school children, and Dumbledore had been at if for years, it would have worked too if Harry was a typical eleven year old without the training that the purebloods from political families underwent, but in Harry's case he was special, just like Tom considered himself special, Harry too did so too. A second later, the headmaster's statement proved that he had read the situation correctly and prepared to respond.

"Don't you think it a bit harsh, Pomona to punish Harry with a month of detentions; after all he was only helping a classmate in need. I am sure we can let go this time and 20 points to Hufflepuff."

Snape sneered at this stage-muttering under his breath about big-headed Potter's, Flitwick looked amused and McGonagall was frowning in disapproval at the obvious bias shown by the Headmaster. The head of house had every right to give punishments and take waive detentions given by other Professors, to the students of their house; only the headmaster had absolute authority, but showing favoritism was frowned upon although the fact that she did it herself was lost on her.

Sprout was obviously displeased, to her the children in her house were her own and she was responsible for all of them, it was her duty to discipline them if necessary. The Headmaster was interfering where he shouldn't have.

Harry cheered mentally, "So, finally Dumbles makes his move for "Poor Hero-Harry's trust, well since Dumbles is playing an ace he should play a joker." "If I may, Professor", he asked after looking at Dumbledore and receiving a nod from the twinkling eyes whose owner was obviously in a good mood. "I would take responsibility of my actions, and I realize that I should not have rushed after the troll, it was only luck that I could do the spell that I had learnt today to subdue the Troll. If Professor Sprout thinks that a month of detentions is a suitable punishment than I would serve the detentions." Harry cheered again, nothing more needed to be said; he had come out on top of Dumbles in his own game and would now be considered as the responsible and "fairness-loving" child. (The first half of the last line is a double entendre, the second meaning is really creepy, I realized after I wrote it, can you spot it?) More like a fairness loving idiot, Tom had learnt in his own life as a Slytherin that playing fair meant playing the idiot and all advantages should be taken as long as you are not caught. Snape remained silent, Flitwick was scrutinizing Harry and Sprout openly beamed and McGonagall smiled. Dumbledore did not miss a beat in his reply "Then I shall leave it upon Pomona to decide." He smiled at Sprout indulgently, but the intent was clear – "while you may give punishment, it must be reduced", a good way to salvage the situation.

"Very well Mr. Potter, as you take responsibility for your actions, I will reduce the detentions to 15. You will be helping me take care of greenhouse 1 and 2 every evening for 15 days."

Hermione on the other hand was looking at Harry and teachers as if everyone had grown two heads, she was conflicted, Harry Potter had saved her from dying and he was being punished for it, Harry Potter had defied authority to save her and Harry Potter was going to serve detentions.

She was conflicted, those who served detentions had been the troublemakers and bullies and she stayed away from them, she followed rules and made sure others followed them when she could. Then again no rule breaker had ever helped her and definitely never saved her life. The greatest crime would be defying authority of teachers but she would admit that a second late would have finished her story before the prologue ended. Shaking these thoughts and filing them for later she heard

"Very well, then it is settled and take 10 points for Hufflepuff, for being responsible. Not many children can be considered responsible at such young age; then again same can be said for adults." With twinkling eyes he addressed everyone – "Is there anything more to discuss, if not I believe Mr. Potter and Ms Granger would like to return to their common room and tend to their empty stomachs. Off you go, Severus please take care our unconscious gust."

A very polite way to say that harness the troll for potions, the troll was dead and Dumbles knew it. Harry knew it because he had seen the surface thoughts of the troll when he looked at him as the club descended upon its head; they went from confusion, pain, shock and then nothing. It was a new experience for him to be in the mind of a dying creature.

Harry and Hermione made their way through the dungeons and around a turn Harry was suddenly assaulted in a hug by Hermione, she was mumbling "thank you" repeatedly and after a while sobbing on his shirt. Gently prying her away, he smiled, if he could play his cards right then there was another loyal friend, but he would have subtly cure her of certain annoying tendencies.

"Granger, err Hermione, could you please speak a bit clearly? I understand I'm quiet awesome, but I'm not awesome enough to understand what you are saying?"

She looked at him, embarrassed of her behavior and afraid that Harry would reject the idea of them being friends, of all the school only he cared enough to try and warn her, and he beat a Troll to do it; she hoped he would be friends. She was jealous of his ability, but she could care less now, if he wasn't good enough to master a spell in one class, she would not be here. Harry had a lot of friends and if she became his friend then she would also have other friends that stuck with Harry. There was no doubt in anyone's mind as to who the leader of their group was.

Harry meanwhile had no qualms about reading those thoughts and began plotting, he would have to take it slow but steady.

"Look, Hermione, I understand that right now you feel grateful, and I surmise that you are trying to thank me, and probably want to be friends right?". A shy nod was all he needed to carry on - "Then perhaps you could join our table tomorrow breakfast, if you want that is. Think about it Hermione, you have been giving me those looks from the start, and you do not like me outperforming you, you made it clear that you do not like me, or rather you do not like me outperforming you in practical classes. Right now you are emotional and what would happen if tomorrow you decided that being friends is not worth it? Just think about it tonight and if you still want to be friends, join us on our table." This being said, Harry strode away mentally congratulating himself at his dramatic exit, Tom's love of dramatics rubbing on him.

Hermione slowly made her way back to the common room, thinking about what Harry said. It was true, she did not like him and would probably still be jealous that he could do things better then he could, but then she could rein in her jealously, and maybe learn how Harry was so good. There was always something to learn and maybe he followed some other books and maybe he could lend them to her, but for the most part she wanted friends who cared and Harry could be a friend who would not befriend her for homework. She knew she was bossy and she did not look good as Lavender and Parvati did, all she had were good grades, she simply could not relate to the giggling duo and hence she did not have friends. Her decision was already made.

Harry meanwhile rushed back to his common room and the room quietened, everyone was looking at Harry, not that it was unusual, but the stares had lessened. Joining his friends he prepared answers to all the questions he knew they would ask.

"Where were you?"- Susan demanded. She was scared for Harry.

"I went to warn Granger about the Troll, you wanted to help her and I decided that warning about the troll was necessary."

"But I wanted to help her out of her crying, you did not need to risk yourself, we could have gone to a teacher."

"It would have been late, and we could have found the troll first"

"Why would we be late?"- Justin ever the shrewd one asked.

This was the part he had to play right, if he told them downright that he could beat a mountain troll, his friends would be afraid and jealous of him, but he could not lie either.

"Well, I arrived just in time to see the Troll preparing a swing at Hermione, so " the last part said in a rush, apparently nervous or modest about admitting that he defeating the troll. Obviously the whole room was eavesdropping and jaws dropped.

"You defeated a mountain troll?" Zacharias had to hear it again; trolls were notorious for their resistance against magic.

Harry nodded slowly. "Bloody hell" - putting everyone's thoughts in two words, Ernie. Apparently he was considering about admitting defeat, he simply could not beat someone who took out a mountain troll with a first year spell, not when most people would run around in panic.

Grabbing a sandwich from the table he bid them goodnight, citing tiredness.

Albus Dumbledore sat near his pensive, depositing his memories of the day in his pensive. It was a daily ritual he performed, not only making a backup had its obvious advantages, recalling all his memories when he put them in the basin helped to review everything and gave him a new perspective, but today he was focusing more on the events of the day, Harry Potter had rushed to save the girl, saving him from the trouble of filing all the paperwork, sweeping the incident under the carpet and obliviating the parents of magic. Harry Potter did have the required tendencies, the reason he had to be kept at the Dursleys was to make malleable and to lower his self esteem. Harry Potter needed to be sacrificed and if he had to make Harry do it willingly, then he would have to make sure that Harry loved others more than he loved himself. Harry would need to love the wizarding world enough that he would willingly sacrifice himself, although it was not necessary, he would kill the boy himself if it was needed, he had to make sure that Harry Potter did not run away, if he did that, it would become difficult to find him. Not that he would not be able to, but it was better to be safe. Not to mention if Harry Potter came to trust him, then he could guide the boy to part with his fortune which was sitting in Gringotts.

All old families guarded their money very carefully, and if Harry Potter died then the vaults would seal themselves and go into a fidelius, it was done because the wiser families did not trust Ministry and other families to not assassinate their heirs and seize the gold. He was glad that Harry was ready to help others, but to his dismay Harry was not lacking confidence and he seemed to handle himself well. Initially he had hoped to make Weasley boy and Harry friends, but it seemed it was not meant to be and Harry had shown his dislike for the boy twice in front of the teachers. Albus also worried about the fact that Harry's friends were all from influential families, not that the boy had other choice, it was merely luck, even the Muggleborn boy was from a rich family, not that muggle money mattered, but being brought up in similar environment helped him to relate better to Smith and McMillan. Harry was not brought up the same way; He himself had made sure of that. But being Harry Potter and the boy's natural charisma and good looks meant that he would not have trouble befriending others. It was all Tom Riddle again, although Tom did not have even half the students in his year as friends, given his blood status. Albus was worried, but including Nymphadora and Granger eased his worries. For now he would have to make sure that Harry and Tom had a confrontation.

All plots are not meant to come to fruition; he knew the fact and contingencies were always required. He would also have to watch Quirrel closely, what he did today was foolish to extreme and not something expected of Tom. Putting the whole school at danger and being obvious about it was not Tom's style. Tom would have gone for the stone during the feast and would have waited Snape to follow, ambushing and killing him in the process all the while extracting all information he needed with help of torture and legilimency. Perhaps 11 years of isolation had an adverse effect on his mind. With a sigh he closed the cabinet and went to sleep, dreaming of schemes and plots and how to implement them.

**Nov 1, 1991**

As usual Harry arrived earliest at the breakfast, not surprisingly Hermione arrived early and promptly joined Harry at the breakfast table, and this got some raised eyebrows. Catty at the staff table had her eyebrows raised and lips pursed; apparently she did not like her Gryffindors abandoning fellow house-mates in the process of making friends and Hermione did not have a single friend in Gryffindor. Sprout was smiling, it would do the girl some good to have friends, Snape was impassive and Flitwick had yet to arrive. Some time later Harry was joined one by one by fellow Puffs and Neville. Apart from raised eyebrows no one said anything against the new development. Hermione was soon in a conversation with Susan and Hannah with Justin piping something in between. Apparently she was telling her the difference between Aurors and regular Law enforcement units. Harry did a mental countdown for the post to arrive. _Someone _had invested in Zonko's and was backing them up to bring a new range of products with the title of "The Potty Master". And arrive the post did, with lots and lots of owls carrying packages which when opened carried a schoolbag with Zonko's symbol on them, the bags were expanded inside, naturally everyone opened them. Every bag had a random Zonko product for promotion and a box with the photo of an action figure stirring a toilet seat. The action figure in the box itself wasn't your average animated action figure either. It had two curtain of hair on its head, one along each side of the side of the face; the centre of the head did not have any hair and looked ridiculous in Harry's opinion. The curtains started a bit sideways and the hair looked as if grease had been poured upon it. The figure had comically long nose that bulged as one traveled away from the face and then again narrowed into a hook. The skin color was pale and the figure wore black robes with dirty yellow stains. All in all it would be a very ugly thing to look at, had it not been a very mocking imitation of Severus Snape. Soon everyone in the great hall was laughing and Snape looked like he would pop a nerve in his head. Unfortunately for Snape the embarrassment did not end, the figures which were in someone's hand started screaming in a very annoying voice – "Unhand me you imbecile" or "Leave me be you dunderhead". A few were screaming about deducting 50 points for manhandling a teacher or a few wanted to deduct 500 points from the respective house of the student for bad breath. Those that were not in someone's hand starting farting and pamphlets started coming from somewhere (I would leave it for the reader to decide). The Weasley twins promptly glanced at each other and in unison slammed theirs headfirst on the table. Immediately the two figures righted themselves and squealed in pain, running circles around each other with arms flailing at their sides and promptly farted. Others soon followed suit, meanwhile some began reading the pamphlets -

**Disclaimer**:_- The product described below is the joint result of multiple ideas of our RnD team. Any resemblance with any person, living or dead or a fictional character is purely coincidental. _

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_**P.S Beheading the figure results in a stinking fart.**_

The great hall was soon filled with sounds of farts, squeals and threats of dunderhead, imbecile and surprisingly "otter" all done with an irritating voice, followed by even more laughter.

A seventh year Ravenclaw, who had failed his potion exam an year previously promptly beheaded the figure and dismembered it, with a very vicious look, a mix between rage and amusement. Meanwhile Snape saw true fear for the first time after Voldemort's fault. He was not afraid even during his trial, he knew Dumbledore to bail him out. But now he saw students taking out their aggression on the dolls and shivered, if it could happen to the dolls, sooner or later someone whom he mistreated during his classes ensuring a fail would come and do the same with him. People were getting ideas from what seemed to be a harmless prank. Snape found his hands shaking, despite his occulmency and promptly strode out of the great hall. He would have to think, he would need to do something about it.

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**A.N. :-  
**

WhitElfElder :- the emotional trap issue hopefully is resolved.

goku90504:- thank you for all the typos, will correct them in a day or two, its getting late here.

why?:-, please sign in if you need me to answer.

why? asked anonymously- "Why would u make an make a plot bunny an

notes longer then two chpts?"

Nissassa :- " 'cos its my fic . Writing takes time and at that time it was difficult to write, so i wrote the plot bunny.

Drifter950 :- Thank you for such an encouraging review, I know my writing is not as good as other authors write, but I'm trying to improve.

Rdg2000 :- yes i read it, it is added in my favorites, sadly the author does not update often, but who am i to complain? The story is good and i hope it progresses faster than its current pace, since the author updates slowly, making it go faster would perhaps compensate.

Stealacandy_quote :-"Ooh, I like this story. So much so that I just finished reading it a second time"

Nissassa:-Thank you for reading, I am glad you enjoyed the story so far.

FoXsHaDoWwRaItH:- thank you for the p.m, and i think your name is cool too.

Thank you for reading, I am glad you enjoyed the story so far.

**Thank you everyone for such wonderful reviews. And I know I promised some additional stuff, but this chapter is already very lengthy.  
**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer – I do not own any fictional character.**

**Legilimens-Chapter 12**

Severus Snape was having a bad day, and it was just the morning; knowing the school as he did, he had no doubts that those imbeciles would try their best that it did not end well.

Part of it was his own fault, he was the one who never took heed to the Headmasters warnings; He was the one who despite several letters of complain, continued to bully the children.

Although it was not completely for his personal reasons that he bullied children, and he agreed to the fact that he was a bully. He truly believed that fear was healthy for good performance in a class room. He did not possess the Grandfatherly persona that Dumbledore employed, he was strict and he had to generate fear amongst those imbeciles, lest they blow themselves up.

He knew it was unnecessary; the potion curriculum was designed in such a manner that under no circumstance would a set of ingredients explode; sure they could boil the cauldrons, they could hiss but never explode if mixed in any reasonable amount and any way possible.

The potion-making instructions were sometimes thrice in length than required, just to make sure that the potion has no chance to blow up in face. But that was not the point! They should never make mistakes, even if precautions were taken. Anything less than perfect was useless in potions.

The no good bastards always had the tendency to mix red looking substance in abundance, and let us not forget bright green ingredients. Somehow the more impressive looking ingredients were added twice or thrice the required amounts, because it looked impressive.

Those imbeciles never understood the beauty of simmering cauldrons, the glorious fumes and the ability to predict exactly what would happen and why. He made sure that they understood. They compared his potions to cooking, to chemistry and sometimes to painting! Those dunderheads never understood that the potions actively interacted with the magical core; they never required foolish wand waving.

The beauty of casting magic and doing it so subtly, without any fanfare, to be able to bottle up the spells; to bottle life and to contain death, all in a small vial.

He made sure of it, perhaps he was harsh or maybe he was not. A small part of him loathed himself that he was good at potions because Sirius Black was. His own parents were never rich enough to buy him the required materials. He specialized in the Dark arts, but the Marauders employed potions in their pranks because a lot of spells were above their grasp. Lily had helped him to counter those pranks; it had all started with an itching potion combined with a boil inducing potion.

Black found it amusing when people scratched their face to relieve an itch only to see a boil forming on the same place. Lily had brewed him a small boil relief potion when he was being stubborn about visiting the infirmary. He had wanted to hex those boils off, but Lilly stopped him from it. A good thing too, considering he would have scarred his face permanently.

From then on he studied potions, to be closer to his friend, to her. He truly enjoyed potions and later pursued Mastery on the subject. Deep down he knew that his chances with Lilly were slim, he was not good enough.

He knew he had nothing to offer; she was beautiful, smart and was a rallying point for all muggle-borns and he was hook nosed, pale skinned dark arts maniac with no qualities to make him her equal. It was speculated that one of the light sided families would try bringing her to their fold, once she left Hogwarts. She was no ordinary muggle born after all, she gave all signs of power seen in people like Albus Dumbledore, Voldemort, Lucius Malfoy, and Bellatrix Black had previously shown.

Severus was witness to that; he had seen Lilly use magic consciously when he sat alone, trying to muster up some courage to talk to the pretty red haired girl. He had seen Lilly moving flower petals at will. Very few children could manage that and even fewer wizards tried to learn when they were mature enough.

While basic wandless magic was neither impossible nor too difficult to learn for most adult wizards, yet most did not care to learn it. After Hogwarts most would pursue further training and then other priorities of life took over. At Hogwarts few had the focus, fewer had the power and very few had the drive to achieve independence from a wand.

Lucius could cast hygiene charms without a wand as easily as he could breath and he used it to humiliate others after he shook their hand. Dumbledore could be seen transfiguring things around when needed, without a wand. The Dark Lord could blast things and people away at a mere thought, Bella do the same, on a smaller scale and Severus himself could use Legilimency without a wand and without any preparation, at a moments notice.

Lilly completely distanced herself from him and it was expected after the blunder he made. And James Potter used the opportunity to great effect. Snape knew Potter liked Lilly, he hated to admit it but Potter was a better choice for Lilly than he was. Potter was talented, he would never admit it aloud but he was talented and could become a transfiguration master. The Potters were rich, not Malfoy rich but rich enough.

Potter could provide her an opportunity that he could not. It burned his blood but he could not deny the facts. He was far too lost in Dark Lords fold to ever come out, even if his name was in possible recruits list, he owed Malfoy and Mulciber a lot of favors.

Thus while Lilly married Potter, he got branded. He was sent to spy on Dumbledore where Dumbledore caught him.

Dumbledore blackmailed him to serve under him as a teacher in a school full of brats. The crafty bastard made sure that the world knew he was a traitor to the Dark Lord; he made several appearances with him in tow, trivial things like a few Death Eater trials, an errand at Gringgots, etc.

This resulted in his old friends turning their backs on him and making sure that whenever the Dark Lord returned; half of his pay would be spent brewing nerve repair potions for himself.

Not to mention losing favor of a lot of powerful friends, friends that could prove useful during a time like the present. He had no one he could ask for help; Lucius had flat out refused to be a part of childish pranks. He even sent him one of those infernal dolls as a present to – "cheer him up".

Dumbledore actually lectured him while giving a twinkling smile before returned to his paper work for some bill at Wizengamot.

"Now, now Severus, I'm sure you truly don't want that. It is the first step towards fame, my boy. You will be remembered eternally. Why, one day you would find yourself on one of the chocolate-frog cards! I must say I was so happy when I saw myself in those cards, my greatest accomplishment indeed."

Severus had enough of the act and in fit of rage grabbed Dumbledore's shoulder to yank him away from his work. An instant later he knew he had crossed an invisible line when he felt himself thrown against the wall face first, his hands yanked back and his wand flying out of his hand in Dumbledore's own, all before he could blink.

Facing the wall Snape could feel Dumbledore's overwhelming presence nearing him. The hair of his back and neck stood up and he could feel fear creeping up the second time in the day. He had started regretting his action the moment he had laid his hand on Dumbledore's shoulder, but it was late already.

"You should not have done that, my boy." Snape heard Dumbledore's soft voice as he was turned around, face to face, none too gently. "I have given you a lot of leeway in your methods of teaching. I have received a lot of complaints about you over the years, yet I have done everything to save you from the consequences of your actions. Do you know how troublesome it was to appease Tiberius when you handed out a month long detention to his nephew? Fortunately, young Cormac is not known to be polite, and it worked out in the end. At this rate half of my time would be spent answering mails and floo calls and sooth ruffled feathers all because of your wrong doings."

Severus could feel his hands being twisted, slowly and painfully.

"You will serve as a spy, whether you are amenable or not. There is no backing out, and making my life difficult might result in unpleasant consequences, for you of course."

"I will not help you out of this; my only concern is that you are alive and able to take the position of the spy, nothing more. You dug the well; you find the rope to get out."

His demeanour changing in an instant, gone was the hardened face and cold eyes, eyes twinkling he continued - "I believe you missed breakfast, it wont do if my own staff is not fed well, will it? I expect you to be present at lunch." That being said, Dumbledore returned to his work although his mind was not on it, now that he could see change in the air. Hopefully Severus would change for the better, at least towards the students and save him a lot of trouble.

What did he not do for the British wizarding world, for the greater good?

A decade ago he received a prophecy, a prophecy told to him by one of his current staff. He interviewed her in his office, but for the prophecy to take effect, arranged young Severus to overhear a part of it. Severus had been tailing him for some time on Tom's orders. A memory charm on Sybil, an appointment at Hogs Head, a compulsion on his brother and a bit of tweaking the privacy wards of the place; not difficult since he was the one who warded the Hogs Head in the first place.

He had to find the child of prophecy, but only Tom could choose. Then he saw a miracle happen, the muggle born girl somehow chained a few rituals and probably invented at least one. She somehow anchored her soul and magic to linger with Harry, as a shield to protect him and attack whoever attacked Harry Potter.

Tom in his confidence simply brushed away the presence or perhaps the defense hid itself from detection. The Killing Curse when cast would have detached Harry Potter's soul from his body, only it never struck the target. The shield erected took the blow and then attacked Tom viciously, destroying his body completely. In normal circumstances it would have killed him and everyone around him, but Tom was not a Dark Lord for nothing.

He expected the existence of a Horcrux or perhaps several, unfortunately he was not disappointed. Tom never understood the concept of overkill and although he could never guess the exact number he expected more than two.

The alarms notified him and he arrived within half a minute, performing as many detection charms as he could. He marveled the work done but sadly he had to destroy the evidence of such a ritual. Who knows what the department of mysteries would have done, had they found out about the rituals.

Even he would never subject a child to their experiments. It would have been easy to do; the knowledge about Harry's survival would have been suppressed or claimed false and the boy would be under study. He could not allow that! The boy was needed.

He quickly performed the detection charms, hastily recorded the information and then destroyed all magical evidence, his and Lilly's. To this day the department of Mysteries is still baffled of what truly happened. His next step was to spread rumors far and wide, soon people were celebrating and any possibility of Harry Potter disappearing was negated.

Still, destroying evidence meant that he could not study the magic thoroughly and all information he had was based on hastily done diagnostic charms and no thorough analysis was possible.

A lot of people had their attention on the boy. It would have been very difficult to kidnap the boy and keep him secret. Croaker was a devious person and his deviousness was only beaten by his ruthlessness. He is known to throw his nephew from the window so that he could show signs of magic.

He was also the reason he truly wished Harry Potter to be the child of prophecy. Who knows what that man would do to his nephew? Protecting Neville would have been much more difficult, doable but difficult.

Taking Harry out of any wizards grasp was another difficult thing, but luck was on his side; Sirius was not liked by either sides. Barty Crouch hated all Blacks; he never gave him a trial. Sirius alienated the "Dark" families and the Light families were never on his side to begin with. Sirius was very naïve person, and to think he was born in the Black family!

Malfoy family did not dare try to adopt the boy after Lucius was caught, Dumbledore had fabricated the evidence that made him a suspect, and although Malfoy was a death eater he was good at covering his tracks.

Even the flimsy excuse of imperious curse and a few galleons at the right place got him out of the trouble. A lot of people were actually under the imperious and thus the task was not too difficult.

The Longbottoms were one of his regrets; he regretted what he had to do. He would have had a lot of trouble, but again luck was on his side. A little manipulation here and a bit of help from elder Diggle brother and the problems were solved.

He wished that all this was not needed, but he had to play with the cards he was dealt with. What else could he do? He could not train the boy; he could not create a child soldier. What were the chances of a child surviving a sixty year old Dark Lord? One does not hand out weapons to a child, any child.

The boy was a Horcrux too! He would have removed the soul but what would happen to the child? The struggle would have damaged the boy beyond repair. Tom would not have gone without a fight. His options were limited.

Kill the boy. Not possible since he was needed.

Remove the Horcrux, again inadvisable due to the damage which could occur was unknown.

Wait and watch.

He chose to wait. Again he had multiple options, he could

Train the boy, not advised because the extent of the effect of Horcrux was unknown. He could be training a Dark Lord in making.

Give him to a family, a magical one. Again it was not advised since the Horcrux could decide to possess those in his proximity, not to mention he did not need Harry Potter with an ego twenty times his father.

Remove him from magical environment and wait.

He chose the third. The Horcrux would never posses a muggle since it could not survive in a powerless body; also the muggles were relatively expendable in the big picture.

He eventually bound the Horcrux to the boy and enhanced the protections, those that lingered from his mother's sacrifice.

Now Harry Potter was at Hogwarts, and doing better than expected. Not the best but still good at studies. He did not feel the need to hamper his abilities; he was hardly a match for one such as Tom Riddle. And Dumbledore doubted that Harry Potter could learn enough to be a threat. Tom not only had magic and experience to wield it, he also had the knowledge of the World and its workings.

Even if somehow Harry Potter could equal Tom in a duel, there were many things that could work against him. Tom controlled a large part of Wizarding upper class who served him directly and then there were the sympathizer's, light and dark that did not like the muggle borns.

If Harry Potter was able to match Tom in a fight, he would be assassinated the next day. Only Tom Riddles desire to personally kill the two children saved them both. He could have sent his minions to kill the children. He could have waited, but he did not.

Even if somehow Harry Potter survived, he could not kill Tom, he himself was a horcrux. Tom would be prepared to get resurrected very soon. The number of times a person got lucky was limited, eventually Harry Potter would fall and if somehow all the Horcruxes were destroyed and Tom lost his body, he himself would kill the boy to eliminate Tom.

The true loss in the whole war was Lilly Potter. She was a once in a century witch. Had she lived, she would have been a great asset. She died barely at the age of 21 years and he, Dumbledore had a hand in it. Although given her blood status she was already a target, but he practically engineered her demise.

Had she lived, she would have rivaled himself at her prime. Once the responsibilities lessened she would have learnt a great deal. Horace and Filius had considered taking her as their apprentice and would have a few later. He himself would have kept an eye on her development and would have involved personally after some time.

With a sigh Dumbledore dropped the quill and got up for a walk. His mind was not on the work, he was getting old. He truly wished his family would forgive him once he died. He still could not truly make amends with his brother.

He did not expect forgiveness from Lilly and James, had they lived to his age then perhaps. People rarely understood the burden that falls upon those who square their shoulders for it. Had he not done what he did, countless more would have been dead.

The war was a civil war; Wizard borns were rarely a casualty except order members and resisting Auror forces. Only muggle borns and muggles suffered.

Muggles were not his concern and were not his responsibility, the wizards were. Muggle born or Pureblood all fell under his responsibility whereas muggles were a different country entirely. They had different government and different laws.

Had he not stopped the madness, Tom Riddle would have been in power. He was very good at playing from the shadows. It would not have been a great loss, since most of the wizarding population was pure-blood, but then his sights would have been set on other countries. An all out war was never a good thing for anyone concerned. It would have been Grindelwald all over again.

He always said – "Do what is right, not what is easy"; few could ever understand it. The easier option would have been to ignore the prophecy, to let Harry live with Sirius, to let Longbottoms gain Harry's custody. He chose the difficult one. It was very easy to give the child the childhood he deserved. It was very difficult to arrange someone's death, to incapacitate someone mentally, to imprison someone illegally and to arrange a child's death. The burden he bore, any lesser man would have crumbled underneath it.

Steeling his resolve, he straightened his back, the lifeless blues eyes twinkled again, with a smile on his lips he murmured

"For the greater good . . . all For the Greater Good . . . . ."

It was time to take a round of the school.

Severus Snape meanwhile had resumed pacing around his room. Today he had crossed the line; he had been toeing it for past decade. But today he crossed it. Dumbledore, the man of infinite patience was annoyed with him. You do not want Dumbledore annoyed with yourself unless you lacked self-preservation instinct or were perhaps equally powerful as he was.

His first instinct was to blame it all on Potter as he had done to Potter Senior previously. But even he could not blame Potter, Potter was a Hufflepuff, he would never have that kind of subtly. A decade worth of work was finished. He suppressed a snort.

He truly wished that Dumbledore released him from this hellhole, but Dumbledore would not have him out of sight, an action lot of people approved. No one wanted him free, with Dumbledore keeping an eye on him, a lot of people held lesser resentment towards Dumbledore for saving him at his trial.

He was truly helpless now; the morons would never let him live it down. He could have Filch ban the products, but it would only increase their popularity, you ban something and the sales double and he was not keen to talk to Filch either.

He could already see those filthy toys running around, stirring toilet seats that came along them and he could see banners that would be hanging within days sporting the "potty master". This "prank" had beaten almost all the pranks done by the Marauders except perhaps the time when he was lead in front of a Werewolf.

The only solution he could see was to "tone – down" his bullying. He could see now how he would start finding those "toys" at unexpected places whenever he deducted house points off someone.

There was no other option, either he stopped bullying or the torment intensified. He could imagine the kids sending ideas in letters; he could see newer models of him clothed in a woman's clothing and a stuffed eagle hat.

He could not write to Zonko's to stop the bullying, he could not sue them either. There were a lot of people who disliked him and he knew from experience that Justice was always for the rich and for the powerful, be it anywhere, any country and any time. He was not rich and Dumbledore's little games left him without any power.

Meanwhile Harry and Neville, in the Gryffindor boy's dorms were having a little disagreement.

"Why do I have to do this Harry, it hurts!"

"Because I told you. Stop throwing a tantrum around and prepare yourself." A mere glance in Neville's eyes gave him access to his mind where he promptly started "shouting" or generating noise giving Neville an incentive to expel him from his mind.

A few minutes later

"Why do I have to learn it to such proficiency? I could keep Mum out before we arrived at Hogwarts! And I can falsify passive scans from Snape. Why are you insistent that I learn, I was never good in the first place?"

Harry rubbed his temples and sighed, Neville was throwing a tantrum about learning Occulmency. Well he was throwing a tantrum about learning how to resist full blown attack from someone like Harry. Neville was soft spoken and shy but was very hard working. He always believed himself to be a squib and hence when he saw that he could learn magic, his drive to learn increased. He always worked hard, never complained and never refused to practice. But today it seemed his increased confidence was working against him.

Neville loved the Mind-Arts lessons since they finally enabled him to control his magic and the method of sending messages mentally was very cool in his opinion. He did not had to even read any charms and transfiguration books because Harry sent him all the information he read and very quickly too. He was then able to visit the greenhouses more and it even earned him points.

But fending full attacks gave him headaches and Harry claimed that he was not even going at half of the power. How powerful was Harry?

His thoughts were broken when his mind was suddenly invaded and it was done without eye-contact! Harry said he was developing a technique to use Legilimency without eye contact. Although he said that passive legilimency was possible without eye contact, he wanted to push the limits and actually invade the mind without any eye contact.

Suddenly the world shifted and he found himself inside a greenhouse, but the whole greenhouse had a single plant, the devil's snare. The plant crept upon him and was dragging him, he could not breathe, and it. He struggled, he tried to get away, but he knew it was futile. Just as he gave up the hope the world righted itself, the previously green-tinted world now consisted of red and gold walls.

Blinking around, he saw Harry watching him amusedly. "The bastard did this, but how?" Neville thought angrily.

"Yes I did this" Harry replied with a sweeping gesture, "I simply invaded your mind and convinced your brain that you were in a place that was the most frightening. Your mind conjured up the images; it is an interrogation technique where a person is convinced that he truly is rescued from prison. The mind is convinced that what it sees is real and with the help of a few suggestions the person starts believing that the vision is actually true. Then a familiar person, perhaps a family member is brought in front and he asks the required questions. The person then answers them only to find himself returned back to the prison cell."

"I can recreate almost anything; or rather your own mind creates everything that you would consider realistic. I merely gave it suggestions to act upon. Do you see why I insist that you need to learn?"

Neville could only give a shaky nod, He knew Dumbledore had locked his parents mind and Harry meant well, but he disliked the headaches and he never wanted to be a part of that vision again.

"How about we do something fun?"

The predatory grin on Harry's face told him that it was another one of his schemes and he was going to be dragged in it.

"What would we do?"

"Snape is not going to take today's class, we can watch the twins planning a new prank on him or we can play one of our own."

"But you have already tormented Snape enough? And somehow Gran agreed to be a part of it!"

"Your Gran hates all death-eaters, we both know that. Not to mention she could see the money out of a small investment. And let us not forget that if this succeeds then we will have a very effective weapon to target the ministry with. The Prophet maybe in control, but even the Ministry would never stoop so low to stop a joke shop. At the end of the day it is just a small prank, after all."

Neville sported a predatory grin that was seen only upon the Weaseley twins when they carried out a prank.

"Imagine Snape's face when he sees an advertisement of "Potty-Master" in the Prophet."

"Let us see how effective it is and then if it sells then it would fund its own advertisement, let's leave the Weasley twins to torment Snape for now. I have something else in mind and you might learn something from it."

.X.X.X. . .

"Why are we here Harry?"

"You'll see"

Rummaging through his pocket Harry pulled out a thick piece of parchment with a painting of blue snakes. The snakes did not look like any Neville had seen in any of his picture books.

"I've never seen such snakes in any of the books Gran made me read." Neville wondered aloud.

"Because they aren't, these are fictional snakes." He replied with a grin.

"fictional snakes?"

Witnessing the confusion on Neville's face, Harry elaborated –

"Just like the comics you read about super powered characters, these snakes do not exist. But in a portrait they can, which means these snakes will have abilities that were envisioned by the creator of the portrait."

"But why are we putting this portrait up?"

"This little portrait is the solution of all my problems, you will know in time. Now help me put this up."

". . . "

What Neville did not know was this portrait used to be in the castle fifty years previously, when Tom Marvolo Riddle attended Hogwarts. The snakes in the portrait were drawn by Tom with some specific abilities in mind.

A portrait could not influence the physical world except perhaps making noise. Some portraits were given a few privileges such as keeping passwords for doors.

Yet, a portrait could influence the 'portrait world' they had access to, as they pleased. Wizards in a portrait could use their weapons and wands, although the effects would reset after sometime. Similarly these beautiful blue snakes were able to disillusion themselves and move around, invading other portraits. Other exceptional ability was to **possess **other portrait characters.

Although Harry did not have the privilege to add or remove portraits, Tom being of the Slytherin line could. Thus he had added the portrait to remove surveillance of teachers from his group.

The portraits would notify the Headmaster and other staff of any wrongdoings of students. Some people like Filch and Snape abused this to great effect, but no one came close to headmaster Dumbledore in his abuse of power. Anything and almost everything worth noting was noted by the portraits around the castle.

Dumbledore never missed anything that happened around the castle and used this to great effect, gaining favors and collecting information was very easy.

During his later years at Hogwarts Tom used those snakes to falsify information, to choose what was sent or none at all when necessary.

It was very effective measure against such surveillance; the headmaster not being from the founder's line did not know that the castle recognized anyone from the direct lines of founders. Essentially the castle would allow those people the rights to redecorate and renovate if they wished to do so, a few more privileges such as access to certain rooms, etc. The wizards of those times were very private people and respected each others privacy.

This was also the reason why common rooms had passwords; the founders reserved the right to teach a few secrets outside the curriculum to their own house only.

Modification to Hogwarts could be done only upon the permission of the Headmaster, with the exception of founder's lines. Even that was limited and no drastic changes could be made without the permission of the one recognized by the castle as the Headmaster.

"~~_**Ssscatter~~"**_

"_**~~yesss my Lord, any sssspesscific orderssss?~~"**_

"_**~~None, only usual sssurveillanssce and no interference until nesscesssary. I trussst your judgement~~."**_

"_**~~It shall be done. Five offff usss, ssshall follow you everywhere. The resssst will follow the teachersss. ~~." **_

In an instant the snakes turned invisible leaving the portrait with innocent purple flowers and grass, very Slytherin indeed. No one could guess that the portrait of flowers served any ulterior purpose.

"What did you just do?"

"You are asking a lot of questions today, Neville." That shut Neville up, afraid that he may have crossed a line. Harry never answered any question related to his unnatural competence and advanced skills. How he knew things he should not have known were the question that irked all the Longbottoms, but they never pushed too far, they owed the boy too much.

"Come on its time for Herbology and I do not want to be the one who handles dragon-dung. Let other late comers filthy their clothes with it. Only Weasley is capable of lunch after Herbology and without a change of clothes."


End file.
